WALLY: The Humanized Novelization! edited
by Spring-Heel-Jacq
Summary: Edited story with humans replacing robots.
1. Introduction

Before you fellow readers and writers begin this edited story, I wish to state my opinion of how well written and descriptive this story, written by whoadrep08, was . . . one of the greatest stories out of several others I have come across on this site. I advise you, as the readers, to do plenty of research on a specific topic you are writing about like whoadrep08 had done by seeing the movie WALL∙E three times per week . . . which beats me seeing it five times less than six months. It will help your story become a success.

**DISCLAIMER **

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_.

I am nothing but a humble editor . . .

* * *

Earth, a world long forgotten, a once terrestrial beacon of life now scarred by its former inhabitants and their artificial leavings, now an impurity floating around in space, a ball of garbage so to speak. Such an ironically laughable thought that it's the only known habitable planet in the known universe, if anyone could've seen it now….

However, no one can or ever will again, now that it is by definition: devoid of life. An entire planet with absolute zero population, the former twelve billion inhabitants left their mark, or marks seen from space by new landscapes made entirely of garbage, if the atmosphere had any visibility that is. Even the air is subsequently thick from pollution and the landmasses are almost unrecognizable. Entire continents covered, reshaped, and transformed into a combination of tundra and desert like wastelands solely by plastic, paper, and metal waste; every city now giant junkyards, buried by mountains or towers of trash if seen from afar.

Here, in the Buy 'N Large, Cleanup Sector _NA-001_, formerly known as New York City, it is barely what it used to be like by the humans who lived here. The once mighty iconic buildings of downtown Manhattan now dwarfed or were buried by the even taller copious numbers of towers made entirely of trash cubes, thousands of feet high and stretching on for miles in all directions. The once water filled bays of the Hudson now dried up polluted valleys by the receded Atlantic. Old buildings and bridges mostly rusted and eroded away by the etchings of time, nature, and man's impact. Garbage and the howling volatile winds is the only predominant feature present in the once recognizable metropolis …but it's not the only thing in this hellhole.

A faint but clear chirping of music sounded, like a whisper in the winds of the dead city. In the distance, something moves amongst the heaps of trash, traversing the streets, a single human.

Maybe it is not so devoid of life...

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

A lone human male walked around the avenues of trash towers, strolling across the desolate littered streets carrying out his job, or known as "directive." The sound of music emitted from the man's playable yet eroded and abused with slight static ancient cassette player gave the only sign of life in this place.

He stops near a small, ancient mobile compactor nearby, one of many around the Sector, wielding a shovel in his heavy-duty gloved hands, begins scooping a pile after pile of the land's indefinite filth into the device, and activated it. The sound of its obsolete and worn hydraulics grinding as it compresses the garbage into a cube echoing through the streets, not silencing the sound of upbeat happy music. The compactor opens and spits out a one by one meter cube of junk, weighing roughly fifty kilos. The human then picks it up with practiced ease and carries it behind his back. Another life form, a mutt canine, follows right behind him. After some considerable climbing and carrying up a height of trash, the human finally stacks the cube along with others on the top of the trash tower.

The human pauses for a moment, leaning against the cubes trying to catch his breath from such labor. He wore a very old, ratty, and dirty coverall jumpsuit, its bright yellow cloth now coated with stains of dirt, dust, grime, sweat, oil, grease, and god-knew-what other impurities he was covered in. His name, Wally, barely readable on the similarly worn red patch explicitly roughly stitched on his left breast side, its letters BNL all but faded. He stood five foot and seven inches, and looked in his late twenties to early thirties. His exposed areas of skin had a sun-bleached shade of light brown from the dust and unforgiving sun, his dark brown hair an unruly mess akin to a dust mop.

He looks back up to the cubes in front of him.

"Huh?" Something caught his attention, a shimmering object from one of the cubes. He grabs it, it doesn't budge, and he tries harder, grunting for more strength, still nothing. Yanking on it with his feet on the cubes, pulling with all his might, the iridescent object finally breaks free with a sudden force that Wally falls flat on his back. He sits himself up and simply stared at the object he pried free, just a circular aluminum trash lid.

_Huh?_ he wondered how something so simple would make him work himself to just know what it was, such curiosity he had.

"Hal!" He whistles for his canine companion to come with him, back down the one thousand meter or one three hundred, nine thousand feet of trash tower in a spiraling makeshift ramp, slowly making his way smoothly but at unease at the sight of a long way down to the streets below.


	2. Home on the Range

**DISCLAIMER **

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_.

* * *

It's a far enough distance to traverse through the toxic city, as Wally traveled alone on foot down the streets from the mountains of trash of former Central Park. Old buildings crumbled and towers of garbage cubes proudly standing as far as the eye could see but he remained unfazed, remaining oblivious to Buy N' Large mega corporation logos, similar to the one on his uniform. Holographic screens materialize from literally everywhere. Buy n' Large shopping, Buy n' Large bank, Buy n' Large restaurants, stores, skyscrapers, Buy n' Large everywhere!

He passes Wall Street, old newspapers scattered everywhere, barely legible from the dirt, read: "TOO MUCH TRASH! EARTH COVERED! BUY N' LARGE CEO DECLARES GLOBAL EMERGENCY!"

Wally reaches an elevated maglev train station, the train itself derailed and eroded on the abandoned spot so long ago. Wally notions for Hal to follow, as he hops down on the tracks and continues walking, a short cut home, but not a pleasant one.

He keeps looking ahead, for all around him, there are more humans, dead humans. Skeletal remains all wearing the same uniforms as Wally, their bodies scattered and forgotten like the garbage city they were cleaning, and all but decomposed by nature and time. He remembers this place. He was born and raised in here. He couldn't escape it nor change it for it was all his life and job as well as for his fellow cleanup workers, participating since early childhood in excavating the dystopian city, no matter what. It was all part of a global effort that started a very long time ago, by what was left of the governing Buy N' Large to clean the planet for people who left on ships that had set sail for the infinite vacuum of space. They left a certain few millions of selected laborers, including Wally's predecessors and ancestors, to do the work of the societies that left them behind while on a cruise in the heavens. For reasons he doesn't know, never returned, he forgotten how long it's been since they left in the year 2105, decades, maybe centuries passed.

The job was deadly itself for there were constant fatal accidents from falling off the trash towers to being buried alive from collapsing tower landslides. Extremely powerful sandstorms wrecked the most havoc in any area of the sector along with the cause of destroying untold years worth of labor. Disease was commonplace as products of harmful pollution and mass starvation, medicine became scarce to crude improvising to eventually nonexistent, allowing pandemic to spread, people dying off by the hundreds every day. All of these natural forces have lead to violent civil unrest from the workers turning on each other, fighting for survival. Over time, the workers died off by the thousands to the millions, and when Wally was first able to use a shovel, there were very few left, less than a thousand in the sector of the dwindling tens of thousands globally. Every year, they succumbed to the uninhabitable environment or killed each other off one by one. Only Wally himself barely survived and he was just a child. There were probably a few more like him scattered across the globe. Like Sector _NA-001_, they were all dead and forgotten, virtually at the edge of extinction.

There is uneasiness in him as he kept walking, avoiding looking at his fallen brethren but snapped back into reality by a sharp pain.

"Aah!" he shouts and holds his bleeding foot in reflex. Collecting himself, Wally glimpses under his heavy-duty work boots, they're completely worn to his feet! Wally realizes as he looked at the piece of metal shards along the corroded tracks he stepped on and pierced his foot, and appears to be more along the way. Wanting to get home in time or be lost in this city, at night, in toxic air, alone, he had to find replacements.

He makes his way carefully around the mass grave of his fellow workers. There must be a hundred bodies unmoved from the spot they dropped dead, some completely buried in trash and sand, and few with wearable clothes, let alone boots. Finally, he spots a usable pair, still fit to the skeleton of its deceased owner. From the looks of it, this man was still working when he died, a cube still clung in his arms, faithfully carrying out his directive until death took him over.

Wally's memories filled him with sadness for his fallen comrades. He knew them, almost every single one of their faces and voices. He knew them since his first memories as a helpless worker. He remembered them alive as if it were yesterday, he considered them as his "brothers," the closest thing to family he ever had because they were all he knew. Sure they turned on each other and him when there was no food left to survive, resorting to looting, murder, even cannibalism. He still considered them the only family he had. He couldn't bring himself to kill them in defense, and he just ran away, cowardly hiding and waited until the mass killing ended. Now, seeing all those he knew dead and rotting everywhere… Since then he never tried to look back at them again, only at a time of absolute need, and that need was now.

Wally looks over the bodies scattered about, they were still wondering the streets of an uninhabitable wasteland and cleaning a long hopeless cause until they gave their last breath for it yet they didn't. Deep down, he felt like a grave robber. Worse, felt guilty for them to die and not him.

_They don't need to worry about their troubles anymore. Another man's death is another man's survival, _Wally shook the thought from his mind. Showing respect for the decomposing worker, Wally carefully exchanges his boots, trying hard not to think about the feelings he felt when they died.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Walking along the eroded train tracks, sporting new boots, Wally chirps triumphantly as he and Hal made their way down the tracks to lower Manhattan. The man climbs off the tracks as he reaches his exit station, Hal following closely behind him.

He passes a series of check stands for the train station. Suddenly a high-tech holographic-ad appears on the walls, displaying static images of luxurious Buy n' Large spaceships leaving Earth.

A voice comes on over the advertisement.

_"TOO MUCH GARBAGE IN YOUR FACE? THERE'S PLENTY OF SPACE OUT IN SPACE!"_ Images with workers like him still on the surface, all with content of cleaning, like a janitorial advertisement.

At last, he reaches the last road leading to his destination. As he stepped off the ramp, a huge holographic-ad appears overhead. The same announcement voice returns.

"_SPEND YOUR FIVE YEAR CRUISE IN STYLE! WAITED UPON TWENTY FOUR HOURS A DAY BY OUR FULLY AUTOMATED CREW, WHILE YOUR CAPTAIN CHARTS A COURSE FOR NONSTOP ENTERTAINMENT, FINE DINING, AND WITH OUR ALL ACCESS HOVER CHAIRS, EVEN GRANDMA CAN JOIN THE FUN, THERE'S NO NEED TO WALK!_" He has seen these ads before, but he despised them for showing things other humans enjoyed while he is here on this planet. Not to mention his other companions' dead and rotting away without a care from anyone on these moving representative pictures of the society they were serving. Those 'people' will never know who they were or what happened on this world. Wally continues on his walk home as the ad goes on...

"_THE __AXIOM_,_ PUTTING THE STAR IN EXECUTIVE STARLINER!_" Then another image appears, a man in a fine suit, middle aged, wearing an executive Buy n' Large pin on his lapel. Shelby Forthright, the annoying overly optimistic Buy n' Large C.E.O. waving off the massive ship during launch.

"_Because at Buy n' Large, space is the final fun-tier!_" The great ship's engines thunderously lift it off as the holographic-screen fades away, overlooking an enormous manufactured concave, miles wide and thousands of feet deep in the dried up Hudson Bay not empty like the Grand Canyon. It was the launch pad for the _Axiom _as seen in the communiqué.

He walks on the Brooklyn Bridge or what's left of it that hasn't collapsed, its main support towers still standing, sections of the bridge still attached. Wally spots a mammoth vehicle near the broken edge of the crossing.

_Finally,_ Wally thought as he walked up to the large truck, a Tonka-like transport with treads, broken down on the bridge, with other smaller vehicles scattered about. He pulls a lever on the side of the back, the sound of loud and obsolete hydraulic actuators activating, lowering a ramp. Wally is home from another day of hard labor.


	3. Home Sweet Truck

**DISCLAIMER **

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_.

* * *

This truck is in essence, his house. Inside, rows upon rows of rotating shelves filled with salvaged trash, or to him: treasures. Interesting items he curiously found and collected from the trash-compacting over the years, probably since he first picked up a shovel. Since then he has retrieved and compiled seemingly everything random he could find: old broken childrens' toys, parking cones, pony ride stands, hand tools, antique clocks, old books, Christmas lights, utility-home appliances, hardware, weird clothing, a drum, signs, anything.

Wally takes off his new boots and gloves, humming cheerfully to the tunes of the music from earlier as he finally settles down for the day. He removes his goggles, his exposed and spectacled hazel eyes adjust to the harsh light flooding inside the truck. He hangs his boots, gloves, and goggles near the entrance as he walks down the center aisle to the other end of the truck, dusting off and unzipping his filthy jump suit. He had no shirt but wore a ratty pair of workpants underneath. He drags his feet to his humble section-of-the-truck of a home, a fabric sheet with its ends tied to metal rods on opposite sides with another sheet draped over it with a tattered pillow on one end, resembling a hammock, his bed. A stack of car batteries lay next to where he sleeps, wired to a switch to all the hanging Christmas lights in the truck, serving as the only light source.

Wally sets down his bag and suit, collapsing on his hammock, Hal lies on the floor exhausted from the walk as much as Wally was. His whole body aching, but he doesn't mind though, for he has grown use to the stresses and pain of heavy-lifting physical labor, and his body showed it.

Despite his thin frame, Wally is actually physically fit, having barely survived starvation on canned food and collected ground/rainwater, sanitary or not. His skin totally fifthly from almost two lifetimes worth of stoop labor in the dirt and not being bathed in a very, _very_ long time. He felt somewhat uncomfortable that his unclean skin coated with a thin layer of sweat from the scorching 40˚+ Celsius heat. His body pale white from wearing the work suit protecting him from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays, the areas of his skin exposed to the sun had extreme tans, mostly on his forearms and face except where the goggles shielded his eyes.

Of all the things making his body look eroded and revolting were the numerous, almost unaccountable marks of past injuries covering his body from head to toe. All the scars were the marks left by the dangerous, often unforgiving work and environment. There were scars after scars of healed or partially healed scrapes. Blisters, cuts, calluses, burns, and gashes spread all over his arms, legs, torso, and some on his face, most of them old and some recent, and more to add to his already grizzled body every new day of working. Every inch of him was weather-beaten, making his skin coarse as fine sandpaper in most places. With no proper medical supplies that he did not possess or have the knowledge on how to tend to himself, Wally could only live with the almost endless pain of new wounds and reopened, infected ones on a daily basis.

The most striking features of him were in his torso and his right arm. A small, crude looking device, imbedded inside the front his chest, the shape and size of an ancient cell phone with scar tissue surrounding it. It had a glowing yellow energy meter with an electrical socket built into it. It's some kind of pacemaker, but it was externally charged.

The second feature of him was his mechanical prosthetic right arm that composed his forearm up to his elbow. It was lightweight, but looked crude with different pieces of metallic casing bolted or welded together, if broken down and rebuilt several times by one hand. Its internal workings encaged on one side, exposing wires and servos. The sturdy hand's titanium fingers and joints were worn rough with scratches and nicks from all the work he does. A long scar ran from where his mechanical arm meets flesh at the elbow, up the back of his arm where it splits into two different long scars. One scar travelled over his chest to his pacemaker, it contains the biodegradable line supplying power to the arm. The other scar ran up his neck, and into the back of his head into his cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls motor functions. This scar contains the nano-fiber wiring that processes bioelectric signals in his brain, allowing him to control his arm through a neural link at the speed of his thoughts. The arm lets him to lift considerable heavy objects like trash cubes and has no sense of touch in that arm so he can't feel pain. At the cost of drawing small amounts of power from his pacemaker and it constantly itched at the wiring scar where it connected to him.

He looks exhausted from just taking a look at himself, the years of endless labor on him drained his strength, but he was just glad that he makes it through the day and still in one piece, mostly. Wally acquired the majority of his larger scars, especially his prosthetic arm, from accidents when he was doing his directive since he was just a child. He was very clumsy at the time and still is. Though for him, the memories of those times as a child-worker are too painful to remember, there was lots of pain inflicted on his body from his contraption of an arm, and there even were no anesthetics or painkillers available back then. The consequences on him and his brethrens were worse, trying to get used to his replacement arm and unintentionally harming others and himself. Though he was now used to them to the point they were finally part of him, that what really mattered.

After a few minutes of laying down resting, Wally gets up and decides to find his form of relaxation in this hellhole. He removes what appears to be a video cassette from a toaster, its title still readable on the old tape: Hello Dolly.

Placing it in an old VCR, he turns it on, and an ancient TV screen flickers and comes to life as the cheerful tune of actors dance and sing '_Put On Your Sunday Clothes_.'The image and sound quality is poor, but Wally doesn't mind. As he hums to the music, he pulls out what he found today from his bag and sorts them out. He remembers the trash lid he unreasonably took home, but felt an urge to dance to his favorite tune with it like a hat how the actors do. He pulls out an unsolved three dimensional mechanical puzzle cube with blue, green, orange, purple, red and yellow stickers covering the six faces with nine stickers.

"Oh!" Wally sets it aside, thinking about how to solve it later. He then pulls out an eating utensil with a hollowed out bowl of a spoon with tints of a fork at the tip. Wally has truthfully never seen one before. He stares at the collection of spoons and forks, confused.

At his wits end, he sets it in between.

_Eh, I'll figure it out later_.

Finally, he picks out a handheld, rectangular metallic object out of the bag, without looking, he flips a switch, and the rows of shelves rotate to reveal a box full of them. He places it in with the others, and carefully aligns them.

_Perfect_! He nods in approval to himself over the precision of his work of placing one of hundreds of lighters in a single mass.

Finishing his collection, he is drawn to new music coming from the video playing on the screen.

It's not like '_Put On Your Sunday Clothes_' where it was so cheerful and energetic. No, this one has a soft, slow, and sweet sound. A male actor is singing along with a beautiful woman on the TV screen, in a passionate tone, gently holding her hand and all the while, kissing her.

Instantly memorized by this image, Wally slowly brings up his cassette player and presses RECORD without looking away from the TV screen.

"_And that is all…that love's about…_

_And that is all…that love's about…"_

Wally is fazed by the beautiful image before him, thinking of the picture itself as the concept of something you doesn't understand, but you just know. Something he learned to be a happy feeling, called "love."

"_That it only…took a moment…_

_ To be loved… _

_ A whole…life …loooooong" _

Wally stood there, still fazed by the song just played, it seemed so warm, so safe, so full of kindness and caring. To hold a woman's hand, feeling all of her warmth run through and feeling it to be the whole world. It felt like the greatest thing in the universe, having another human beings giving themselves to you and you give them all your emotions and feelings for one another, if he could experience it himself.

Wally became lost in thought he realized he held his own hands, the cold of his metallic hand grasping his flesh hand snapping his senses out of trance, filling the void of isolation instead of the warm fantasy of warm company of a beautiful woman.

He pushed those thoughts in the back of his mind as he grabbed his bag and goes outside.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

The hot sun disappeared below the horizon giving way a remarkably purple evening twilight along the western horizon. Hal sniffed around outside the truck with his playthings as Wally cleans out his bag. The winds slightly picking up felt good on his scarred, bare chest after a long day, it was among the only forms of physical comfort he knew, even over sleeping.

A small hole in the brown clouds above opens up. Wally takes notice, pausing and looked up, entranced by a sight he has seldom beheld. The polluted clouds have parted to reveal the darkness of outer space, a void of incomprehensible vastness and the realm of existence for billions upon billions of stars shining all at once, lighting up the sky like diamonds.

He has never seen a starry night sky, at least not one with starlight bright enough to shine through the haze and the trash somehow in orbit. To him, it is a beautiful sight. Like seeing the whole universe for all it was for the first time. is a beautiful sight

Remembering the word beautiful, Wally presses PLAY on his recorder. The soft and loving tune of '_It Only Takes A Moment_'played out.

With the song in the background and the starry sky above him, Wally allows his mind to wonder, remembering about the ideas of beauty, companionship, and love. It must be a wonderful thing as the rarity of a clear night sky. Something so inviting and majestic like the infinite reaches of space, the distant stars and worlds that harbor the secrets of life and the unknown was what must be like people holding hands.

"Maybe..."Wally thinks aloud.

"Beautiful is up there." Just imagining how beautiful love was. Wonderful. Heavenly. Unreachable...

As comforting and inviting as the song and sky say about how great a thing love can be, yet it was just like the stars, something he can never actually feel, grasp or hold. It wasn't something in the air he just catches like a paper leaf in the wind. There is nothing he could ever grasp on this world to feel so loved, Wally was just one man, possibly the only man left, stuck on a lonely planet and no one that he knows, probably in all of humanity, even exist.

Wally felt the sky entrancing and haunting to him, having seen a rare, beautiful thing that reminded him that he could never treasure it personally, like it was taken from him. He somberly looks up into the sky with the eyes of an abandoned child...

_Maybe…love… is up there. _

Wally feels something all too familiar, something he felt since the day he never had any form of human contact, if Hal qualifies for any exception, not just in population count but also in relation or significant bond to any human being. He felt this way since losing his fellow workers, including the other humans who fled Earth. Not since as far as his memories could reach. Certain images of faces he once knew, called parents, who brought him to this world of all worlds; who faded out into nothing, as he could not remember who they were or what happened to them. After that image in his head, he knew he was an orphan, raised in this ugly world by the brutal hands of nature with only his fellow workers to care for him until they all died when he was still young. He was only taught to read, speak, survive, and collect trash, nothing else until he joins his fallen brethren the day he drops dead as well, spent and worked to death like everyone else has.

He worked and worked as told, unfazed by his dead and dying coworkers; even when some of them tried to kill him for survival necessities. All he could do run and hide, and do what he could to clean up, to do his routine, his directive, his down to earth job until he dies, the purpose he been unwillingly given. He cursed everything that happened to the world he now solely resides, for causing the roots of the problems for him stuck on Earth to watch everyone he knew died then trapped on a planet by himself, causing the feeling to transpire in the first place. Questioning whether he was fortunate to have lived through what no one else could, he doubted the purpose of his very existence. For him to have such feelings, he knew of this feeling since his first memories but never realized how bad this feeling was, over the long untold years of his life on this world until now…he was all alone...

Wally snaps back into reality. He could barely hear his music from a raging howl sound and felt his skin tingle from a fast-blowing cold wind into his bare chest. He notices the winds are really fast now, the hole in the sky was gone. He looks around to assess his surroundings.

On the right side of the horizon, something amassed in the distance, it was big, and growing upwards, forward, and fast in an enormous wall of dust that is headed straight for the city outskirts, towards his home, darkening the sky in its wake; a sandstorm.

It hits him these things were deadly, seeing firsthand their seer power and barely survived several sandstorms. Wally hastily cleans the rest of his bag and closes the hatch but froze when he forgot Hal as he's barking outside. He lowers the ramp again.

"HAL!" He gets back in and manages to close the ramp in time just as the first columns of dust started blowing into the truck.

Once safe, Wally slumps to the floor, still getting over almost being caught outside in a sandstorm.

Hal gives Wally a pleading look. Remembering he hasn't fed the mutt or himself yet, Wally gets up and finds a stack of Buy n' Large sponge cakes, canisters of collected rainwater, and canned beans. He unwrap a golden sponge cake filled with creamy filling for Hal and he greedily bites it away from Wally. The man then unwraps one for himself as he opens a small compartment in his prosthetic arm, containing small hand tools, and pulls out a knife. He opens the canned beans with relative ease and eats one of the only sources of food he has had as far back as he can remember. Aside from collecting polluted rainwater, what else was there? It's better to be malnourished than dead from starvation.

He notices Hal already dozed off. Tired and exhausted himself, Wally decides to turn in for the night.

Wally removed his glasses and, in one well-practiced movement, slid the joint off his detachable prosthetic arm from its arm-attachment, and placed it on a shelf nearby. Sleeping with a prosthetic is very uncomfortable on the lump where his forearm used to be.

He switches the Christmas lights off, slipping into the hammock in the pitch black interior. But he won't sleep so easily, the creepy howl of the hurricane-force winds always gave him a spine-tingling chill. Adding to that, his thoughts ran freely about the just-discovered pain of loneliness in his isolation from humanity, with no one and nothing to comfort his suffering.

He always endured suffering alone, but now it was beginning to get to him, the core of his being slowly and surely eroding, going to break down eventually, physically and mentally, like it did to his brothers.

As the night darkens and the sandstorm worsens, it gets colder, sub-freezing. Even in the confinement of the truck, away from the one hundred fifty kilo per hour blast of dirt and rocks, he curls up against the cold in his hammock, like a baby; his only source of warmth and comfort is the loving tune of '_It Only Takes A Moment_.'

He turns it on, though the music reminded him of something he can never have, being able to requite his loneliness, but the soothing music was the only thing that felt like a mother cuddling a child, or a loved one comforting him to sleep.

Grabbing the nearest shelf, Wally rocks his hammock like a cradle, closing his eyes and drowning his hearing into the song, giving him _some_ peace over the hellish gale-winds howling outside.

Eventually, exhaustion prevails over his dreadful thoughts as Wally finally falls asleep.

* * *

For those that came across this story instead of the original who are somewhat confused about Wally's physical appearance, allow me to explain the way **whoadrep08 **explained it to me . . . in other words, i simply cut and past the reply and than altered it:

Wally is a natural human who has only two prosthetic acquired from injury and/or birth defects. He has a pacemaker, which he (the author) came up to serve a purpose much later in the story. The prosthetic right forearm is similar to the mechanical arm of Anakin Skywalker from STAR WARS II & III and it incorporated some smaller scale devices used in the movie (like a cutting laser or tool compartment for instance) and serves Wally to help lift heavy objects despite his small stature, keeping him close the humble and ancient mechanical robot he is in the film.

I hope that answers that and hope you enjoy the next chapter!


	4. On the Job

_**BnL CORPORATE COMMAND AUTHORITY ORDER 09999-1A: GENERAL ORDER A113**_

_**-**_**THE LAST TRANSMISSION-**

_**Buy N' Large **_**World Headquarters, Washington D.C., Cleanup Sector **_**NA-002**_**, Earth **

**June 27th, 2110 A.D. (695 years before the film…)**

The air is thick with the one hundred degrees heat mixed with carbon monoxide, lead aerosol, regolith particles and a century's worth of fossil fuels exhausted into the atmosphere with nowhere else to go, mixed with a planet-wide concoction of impurities. Chemicals, burnt gases, and evaporated remains of compacted and combust plastic, metal, wood, organics and who knew what else could be in the air, as much as anyone could guess what was in the garbage.

No storage to keep the polluted air, no ventilation to rid of it, no endless supply of lithium hydroxide to scrub it, no plants left to photosynthesize it. It couldn't be dealt with just like the garbage, so why bother?

The breeze blew to Shelby Forthright's feet, kissing his sweat-drenched face. It felt unbearable and nearly un-breathable to be blasted with such moving air that's this dusty and polluted.

_Maybe it is nature's way of saying it rightfully doesn't like me,_ The disgraced CEO cynically mused, his skin hurting like hell, standing at the outdoor presidential podium waiting impatiently for the two technical crew trying to rig the holographic cameras for a subspace broadcast.

He tried to brush the accumulating dust off his sweaty and grizzled brow, rubbing into his already sun burnt skin, feeling like abrasive sandpaper underneath his gas mask that added further irritation to his already overstressed physical and mental being.

"Can you guys hurry the hell up or what?"

Adding to the stress and heat, Forthright bashes out at the two technicians.

"Almost done sir, please be patient," one technician replied rather sternly. The technician was thin even in his hazmat suit, working furiously to get the delicate camera to work again after five years of maintenance neglect and hostile environmental conditions.

"Well just in case, do hurry, or else we won't have to worry about patience, wouldn't we?" retorted Forthright.

The tech officer didn't respond, rather looked at his commander-in-chief warily, fixing subspace communications gear is not as easy as it looked, and Forthright couldn't care less when it came to impatience. He had to get this job done right or else the message could not be sent out, but considering the circumstances, he speeds up his progress just a little.

Accompanying the CEO is a large platoon's worth of heavily armed bodyguards surrounding a hundred meter perimeter around the capitol building. Each soldier clad with Nuclear-Biological-Chemical (NBC) suits further armored with Kevlar padding, bulletproof vests. The guards surrounded the capitol were outfitted with riot control gear, transparent steel shields, tear gas cartridges, sonic stun guns, electroshock batons and flash bangs. Most soldiers were equipped with nonlethal weapons while some wielded everything from small arms pistols, to pump-action shotguns and automatic rifles and a couple guards were armed with long-range sniper rifles lining the roof of the capitol.

Standing alongside the small army and the CEO was a couple dozen of board-of-state directors, chief advisors, a handful of senators and bureaucrats that were all that remained of the _Buy N' Large _corporate government, clad in the same survival gear and body armor as their leader, just as impatient as he was to escape.

The prize being protected along with the remnants of a world government is an awaiting star liner Return Vehicle stood ready to launch near the base of the building. Assigned to take the remaining heads of state off the planet and rendezvous with its home ship, the _Buy N' Large _Space Shuttle _Enterprise_, also known as Star Liner One whenever the CEO himself is onboard. Currently, _Enterprise_ is in a geostationary orbit behind the far side of the moon, undetectable from the ground tracking stations on Earth. It is the CEO's own capitol office in space, the newest and probably final central government location of humanity's fleet of ships that it will join forever sail the heavens.

That is yet to be done until the last order was sent out from the ground.

Forthright could stand by and let his subordinate do their jobs, impatient as he is now and wishing it could go a tad bid faster, the technician somewhat right. While the CEO didn't know anything about interstellar communications, he at least will let them do their jobs to the fullest of their abilities to get the message across.

He didn't have time to ponder over his inconveniences or how much time they had left. He had a message to send out as soon as his staff could get the damn broadcasting gear running again and this emergency general order over with.

It had to be done in a thorough manner, meaning no details could be left out for the ships so they would have all the necessary information to stay away from Earth. In the back of his mind, he wanted to do this fast. Not because of the approaching wind surges creeping southward over Maryland towards the DC area, bound to stir up a category five sandstorm that could kill them all.

No, he wanted to get this done with and get out of the city and off this planet before the cleanup workers get to him first. The remains of the two hundred million randomly selected employees of _Buy N' Larges' _ultra-market janitorial departments that stayed behind with the heads of the company to clean an entire planet in the last five years time. Five years of the general population living in space fairing paradise spas while the lowest classes of humanity were left to pretty much clean an entire planet to make it habitable, just short of terra f it all together.

Forthright dared not to remember what the cleanup workers had to live through in those five years and dared not to think the sad thing about how most likely the workers will be spending the rest of their lives here in this shithole, living in almost a hundred-fold more amounts of pain and irritation of breathing this air. Unlike him, safe in his airtight NBC suit with its extremely comfortable environmental filtration system, a whole starship filled with millenniums worth of essentials rations of fresh water and food, what did the cleanup workers have?

They had _nothing_ to filter out the shit in the air they breathed with every breath. On top of breathing basically poisoned air, they also had no way to shield themselves from the raw sunlight bearing down upon them, the protective ozone layer long depleted by the world's century long reign of negligence.

Alternatively, more appropriately, by the company itself since _Buy N' Large _**was** basically the world up until now, once the largest private company that had become the first and only governing body of Earth. A corporative bureaucracy unified all cultures and societies under consumer goods retailing Mega Corporation that had the greatest impacting influence of all time.

Lead by then arrogant young twenty some year old Shelby Forthright himself, _Buy N' Large _made its mark in history as the global power in the 2050s. When the corporation was large and confidential enough to earn a voice within the United Nations to help create a peace between fragile alliances of the then confederated countries that formed during after the everlasting armistice of the War on Terror. They were the Commonwealth of Eurasia, the African & Australian Protectorates, the People's Republics and the United States of North & South America as well as threatening to go against themselves for oil, the world's most precious natural resource at the time despite the painstaking efforts they made to accomplish ending terrorism and bringing stability to all corners of the globe together.

The crisis for what little petrol was left on the planet had taken extremely deep pitfalls throughout the early twenty first century; extraction and processing disasters, depleted reserves, and fewer discoveries of newer deposits from accelerated consumption rates had in turn made the price of transportation and electricity almost unaffordable to the even the most affluent citizens. Economic domains were crippled by such inflation that they were deprived of a means to bring food and warmth to their people, and had brought many cooperative societies down to widespread civil unrest in even the most developed countries.

During the late 2040s, with the last shallow reservoirs lying on shared territories, it became the final straw of global cooperation as heated disputes over jurisdiction of drilling in the lands sparked distrust among those who drilled the oil, wondering if those who did were willing to share it or just take it for themselves. Slowly but surely, distrust turned into animosity, from animosity into hostility and then, as feared, into violence.

Incidents over desperate control of the lands lead to border clashes. Just after one reported death or two, the resulting international outcry had finally resorted to threats of military action if those reservoirs were not surrendered, in return came the promises of retaliation from one another.

What were the former alliances of the western world fractured into enemies amongst themselves, waiting to blow the crisis wide open into a full scale world conflict. It seemed like it was going to be an inevitable fight meaning an uncertain but a dark and deathly future for the human race.

But that future was avoided when _Buy N' Large's _scientific department, with the help of Forthright funding, made breakthroughs that caught the attention of the warring nations with the inventing and patenting of fully-functional nano-explicative manufacturing and D-T magnetic-inertia confided nuclear fusion in 2051.

With the world's primary problems completely solved overnight with the newfound, infinitely renewable energy and resources, the world suddenly forgot it's differences and rejoiced unlike any other period before, almost unbelieving what could have been a third world war has been averted by a corporation figurehead that started off as a supermarket tenant.

The new technology was shared across the world and in return, the age of dependency on fossil fuels ultimately ended. Countries were freed from the burden of bickering for oil and from spending their dwindling financial systems on distribution of energy and food for their people. _Buy N' Larges' _stock and investments exploded as the world's economies blossomed, old factional hatreds faded and international commerce was reestablished with every government on Earth. Forthright, his scientists and the company itself won the Nobel Peace Prize and Forthright won the position of Secretariat of the United Nations Security Council, and title of _Man-Of-The-Century _by the world media.

Using his virtually unlimited wealth, fame, and his position of peacekeeping powers, Forthwright permanently ensured world unification when he officially ratified the cease-fire between the superpowers which included their transfer of sovereignty to the United Nations itself after he 'purchased' the world power's consent with trillion dollar price tags. As Security-General during the integration of the world governments and their territories on all seven continents as a single state, Forthright became _de facto _leader/owner of the world.

With his company and the newly created planetary government under his sole possession, Forthright decided to combine the two, seeing it a complete corporate government overhaul. He used the titular positions of the latter corporation into the former United Nations' organizational assembly branches and drafted a constitution based off of that of the old United States and European Union's legislative council. He decided to keep his title as corporate executive official and made the name _**'Buy N' Large' **_the title of the world governing body.

By 2053, Shelby Fredrick Willard Forthright completely brought the entire world together under one banner where people of every race and nationality could henceforth live as a whole rather than divided. He ultimately stopped World War 3 from breaking out, united all of the human nations as one, and had become the most widely praised and looked upon human on Earth. He had done it, just like always wanted to change the world for the better as if he wanted so many years before.

His idea of an entire planet under the control of a consumerist-capitalist retailer seemed like a somewhat good cause for a world government.

It predominantly meant global peace, that there would be no full-scale conflicts between bickering nations over resources that lay inconveniently beyond their borders and the necessity called for bloodshed, while _Buy N' Large's _world governing meant it was for everyone, where all land, water, and air was shared under one controlling body. It also meant equality, one government. One set of rules, and rules based off western-based constitutions meant a comfortable living was a civil right. At average, it was an exclusive way of life for the majority of the world population, meaning almost everyone was living like a millionaire.

The biggest change in the function of the world was its newfound reliance on technology. With its role in ending war and uniting the human race that lead to its growth of newer milestones in advancement, becoming a part of everything from nanotech-replication that supplied people with any amount of edibles effectively ended world hunger to regenerative medical miracles leading to averaging life span from one hundred forty to one hundred eighty years. Technology mastered spaceflight with the discovery of the secrets behind what made Alcubierre warp and slipstream based faster-than-light travel possible.

Of all the technological wonders of _Buy N' Large_, nanotech-based replication so widely used it become a free form of manufacturing that produced anything at will, it turned any forms of raw matter into consumables, an essential perpetual energy/resource technology in the world that could serve all purposes of consumption. It produced food, commodities, goods, and so forth. With these technologies, it put all forms of production, harvesting, and even economics out of business.

With the need for acquisition of money absent, now practically everything made had become quite literally 'free,' it meant there was no further need for people to give their lives for feeding their families, no need for people to stress their minds or bodies over manual labor. It meant all human requirement for the common goal of a functioning civilization was ceased, no need for workers, no need for control nor peacekeeping, no need of managing, no need of anything. It seemed like they had everything humanity could ever want.

Life of the late twenty-first century had briefly become a paradise on this Earth, a half-century of perpetrates peace and prospers unlike any other in history, a second Renaissance...

It was a brief paradise.

The high-life for every human being came with consequences. Costs nobody could possibly imagine, a world problem that long been neglected for so long it didn't seem possible to coupe or adapt. The beautiful future of the paradise shattered into ugliness and uncertainty by the Trash Crisis.

When from the 2080s until the 2100s, everyone slowly but surely noticed where everything they consumed or used was piling up all around them. If there was another thing left out of human control from living in blissful ignorance of consumerist-ruled planet, was a portion of governing the planet itself, which included resource and waste management as the by-products of perpetual replication thanks again to Forthright's disregard to those issues at the time.

As birth and consumption rates skyrocketed, unattended landfills exponentially overflowed, and spread into cities, across entire landmasses and into the oceans as well. No one bothered with what was first an inconvenience then until it became life threatening, medically by just taking one gulp of the poisoned air was enough to cause respiratory problems, and as a safety hazard being buried by it all. Even as isolated incidents and reports of people dying from the problem increased, no one spoke up about it or did anything until it was too late when the trash piles and tainted air was all around Forthright in the Capitol. The image of the green land on Earth no longer recognizable from space as it looked phlegm brown and yellow. It was something he never expected to see, and never expected to see any hope in what he saw.

By 2099, what was supposed to mark the end of the first century of a unified human civilization, was instead left tainted by their decimated and ruined planet.

Forthright and the staggering Board-of-State directors thought of a solution, never deviating from corporate policy that coexisted with governing priorities: customers first. Instead of finding a simple way out, they instead faced with a grim reality.

They didn't nearly have enough replicator tech to break down the molecular structures of every single piece of garbage on the Earth at the rate it grew. They couldn't dump everything into the oceans nor lift it onto rockets and send them flying into the sun to burn up. There was simply no way to clean up a whole planet worth of trash that covered all thirty percent of the planet's surface in at least one meter of discarded plastic, aluminum, paper, scrap, raw human sewage, destroyed ruins and such. The only way they could at least make a difference in altering the planet's environment would have to require work force. A work force that matched the population of whole countries in the hundreds of millions that would manually haul every piece of garbage into what available compactors, replicators, furnaces, or landfills that could accumulate it all. If overall put into use for cleaning up the planet, it would take at _minimum_ five years, give or take a decade or two more.

The survivability of the humans was the darkest and most sobering factor that hindered that solution. Since the air was so poisonous, it could cause widespread pandemic, from lethal pathogenic plagues and sterility if exposed to misadjusted environment in the required cleanup timeline. Census calculations estimated that if the environmental conditions of the Crisis went on the way it was, birth rate overtaken by death rate, and populations will be dying off by the tens of millions over the next century. By then, Earth will be virtually uninhabitable and the human population will plunge from twelve billion down to a few scattered million by 2200, and the rest left unsaid to slow but inevitable decline into extinction.

Facing the possible collapse of civilization on an already dying planet, if the world knew that the human species was doomed in the next century, everything will undo itself. Everything would come apart as he couldn't imagine.

The collapse of order, shattering of commerce and the peace; an entire planet would plunge itself into anarchy. Shattering the blissful paradise, the world splitting into fragments of people desperate for prolonging survival, much like the fractured world Forthright changed many decades before. It was all about to come down and go back to the way it was, a dark future, but unlike the past of being uncertain, they knew what was bound to be the end of the world and it would all be his entire fault.

Forthright refused to let that revelation break the spirits of his world citizens, the world doesn't need to know if something could be done about it and he'll put his best face forward to keep things peaceful. It was part of his nature to find a way to cheer people up. Telling them everything was going to be all right, like he always done.

He was known as the endlessly optimistic leader that outshined any world leader throughout history, who always had a smile on his face, even facing the impossible or frustrating tasks anyone could face, he always kept up his spirits by bringing up everyone else's. Arrogant and stubborn he was at times, which was among the reasons he disregarded the issue of pollution in the first place. He always insured everyone was satisfied, that everyone was comfortable, and that life was good, viewed as the world leader that could never let anything bad happen to anyone. That was the prime source of his widely cherished leadership that lasted through the latter half of the century; the good old days.

Now, faced with the not-so-distant possibility of the extinction of humanity, Forthright had to find a way to not only ensure its survival along with the planet itself no matter the cost, but he also wanted to make sure the cost didn't include his pride, his position or possibly, his own life.

This was a terrifying thing for him. Forthright never backed down from taking on a company problem or multiples at once, but with the unparalleled burden of saving the human race which always entirely looked up to him as an all-mighty entity, it was enough to make him just run away from it all. To leave it all like his ancestral farmers did, migration. Whenever problems plagued their crops, they fled to another fertile land to start over—

That thought of running away from it all was what created the _Buy N' Large _star liners. If they couldn't survive on this planet, they didn't have to. They could survive _off _this world.

The human race could survive without massive losses of life in space on an armada of state-of-the-art starships originally built by _Buy N' Large's_ Aeronautical and Space Administration program for colony exploration missions to the outer planets of the Solar System and beyond.

Thanks to the fact that these ships were already built in large numbers with the appropriate means of long-term survival in zero gravity, cosmic dangers of radiation and micrometeorites, and were all equipped with replication technology that offered its passengers anything and everything they could ever want, and the designs were modified to carry hundreds of thousands of people each. The luxury space-faring equivalent fleet of Noah's Arks was born.

Though the plan seemed initially sketchy at first, many of Forthright's political and scientific advisers cited most people of Earth might be unwilling to abandon everything they knew to go fly off into deep space, on starships that were never properly tested, and have the entire world cleaned up _somehow_ in five years. One thousand, two hundred and twenty-five days total time.

The advisers also knew this was the most critical and desperate time in human history, greater than the near petrol feuded nuclear war. This crisis affected every human being on the planet won't end with the collapse of one country or another but the fate of a species was at stake. So this time called for extreme measures if need be, regardless if the population would like it or not. And in that thought, the designers of the _Buy N' Large_ Star Liners made sure of another thing to make their passengers content with leaving, to make their temporary lives aboard these ships as comfortable and distracting as possible to ensure populace stability.

Thus after a couple years of brainstorming, with the problem of saving the majority of the population solved and the means to carry out the clean up drafted, the solution was decided right then, and christened as one massive planet-wide effort: Operation Cleanup.

In 2102, Forthright addressed the world of the 'problem' but assured them like any other global emergency it would be taken care of in a professional and efficient manner, and would not put the people under any expense of it. The population would not have to live on the planet to suffer the effects which were heavily censored, against the wishes of Forthright's scientific advisers but lost in favor of _Buy N' Large _sugar-coating the situation for the public's sake. Instead, each and every citizen was given free sanctuary on a luxury cruise in space on _Buy N' Larges' _newly completed Star Lines, a fleet of forty- eight thousand luxurious starships, the largest collection of moving objects ever created by human craftsmanship. Interstellar spacecraft ranged from small _Genesis_-class star cruisers that carried only a hundred thousand to the massive city-sized flagships like the _Axiom__, __Exodus__, _or _Queen Marry III_that could carry over a million people each.

These ships were assembled and readied for launch in their designated population centers whom which they would carry. They were loaded with everything they would need to last five years or more, from spa treatments, exclusive suites, dazzling entertainment, wide enough space to move around, grow, even to raise families, and build lives for themselves…until it was time to return.

Amazingly, everyone agreed to go, to get away from the unfamiliar and frightening reality of the dying planet.

While required by all citizens to go, a large work force roughly estimated to stay behind. With a large number drawn up by Forthright's reluctant advisers, two hundred million of the best and most physically fit manual laborers within _Buy N' Larges' _janitorial departments, male and female genetically selected by the government's central profiling database, and were ordered to stay behind to carry out the operation. All would be split up across the world in sectors assigned to each continent and based off the most heavily polluted areas in need of clean up.

Along with a manual laboring work force to clean up the mess was a collective of people who were to make the planet biologically habitable again. For thousands of ecological specialists, mostly mass-quantities of top-class university graduates, doctors, scientists, farmers, and environmentalists that ironically were called upon their need despite being ignored by _Buy N' Large's_ reign were selected for the research and re-engineering of Earth's destroyed biosphere. Once sectors were cleaned up, they would reseed them with biotechnologically engineered seeds and seedlings that could survive the harsh conditions of drought, malnourished soil, and carbon dioxide-ridden air to replenish Earth's diminished breathable atmosphere. The provision of generated crops for food, and make plant and animal life flourish once again, transforming the barren continents into fertile landmasses making Earth ready to sustain itself once the star liners have returned.

It all seemed impossible from the start, nobody or nothing could fix the mess this massive with what little resources Forthright thought could be used, to show that this Crisis could be solved as if it were an afterthought. Most workers were reluctant to stay behind and clean up an entire planet's mess their own government created while everyone else goes on an extended pleasure cruise.

In reassurance, Forthright himself promised to compensate them with lifetime rewards for all of their selfless efforts before and supposedly after the Crisis were to end, and extended the rewards for their families that would last for generations; on top of being declared heroes of humanity.

They agreed, mostly under the fact since Buy N' Large employed them, they didn't have much of a choice but keep Forthright to his word after the CEO himself agreed to stay behind with them along with some of his senior staff to participate in conducting the operation and reconstruction.

From 2104 to 2105, the entire world population of twelve billion people boarded the Star Liners, launched into space and left Earth orbit into a cruise throughout the Solar System as the cleanup commenced as planned.

Aboard the luxury spacecraft, the people of Earth had found paradise they thought they lost to the Trash Crisis, so much of the treasured automation of commodities and entertainment seemed even better than life on Earth before the Crisis. With every form of consumable entertainment and pleasures aboard the Star Liners in infinite quantities, they all soon forgot all about the crisis back down on Earth. They were too busy being lazy and dazzled by the endless horde of entertainment, they didn't even bother to check with the time of the cruise and the progress going down on the planet they left in the charge of _Buy N' Large_. They didn't care about when they had to leave the safety of the care-free executive cruise and go back to Earth.

The cruise journeys of humanity's ships shall continue on without them ever knowing if the pleasantries that were loaded on those ships were that good to ignore. The journey through the infinite of space possibly would never end not only because of it though.

The work was carried out in the five years Forthright had promised, but, slowly but surely Forthright gravely realized his underestimation of the Crisis and how much his over-optimism cost humanity its home planet.

Five years, two hundred million workers, and miscalculated requirements would not heal the Earth.

It was already dead, and everything on it was dying from it as well. The rising temperatures and rapidly shifting climate zones had spread the chemically diluted air of the littered continents all over the planet. The decomposing trash sank into the soil, contamination severed all plant life of healthy nutrition to carry out photosynthesis, dying off and has left the animal kingdoms devoid of a food supply. In turn, the disappearance of plants killed off all animal life in the process; and all trashed or un-trashed lush green, animal inhabited lands left turned into rotting, dried up, deathly wastelands. In the aftermath of such desertification, the leftover loose earth and decomposed greenery became uplifted by violent winds, turning into hurricane force dust storm systems that inundated entire cities with clouds of rock and dead soil spanning hundreds of miles, burying them and transforming the artificial environments of sprawling megacities and their surrounding natural landscapes into Sahara-like dunes.

Oceanic currents carried the garbage's raw noxious chemicals throughout the northern and southern hemispheres; coral reefs and seabed life were unable to absorb so much lethal amounts of pollution and sewage, turning the seas into concoctions of poison and dead rotting sea-creatures. Oceans' toxic water at the warm equator evaporated and the deadly chemicals mixed with stratospheric convection streams already plagued with carbon monoxide from fossil fuels that were exhausted and never faded over the century. The tainted air became even more deadly with ash and sulfuric ejected from feared and predicted super eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera in 2108. That further hastened the destruction of the Earth's ecological systems with the pyroclastic burial of most North America in ash and sulfur circulating around the globe in the chemically altered air with the introduction of the by-products eruptions into the deathly mix, poisoning the stratosphere.

The resulting atmospheric composition effectively ate away what little ozone was left. Ultraviolet radiation from pure solar light literally baked the planet's surface that sometimes turned deep deserts, high mountains, and mid-oceanic locations into over two hundred degrees Fahrenheit, almost hot enough to evaporate salt water, making the already lifeless forests of still-standing dead trees combust and burn all that was left, sending smoke and charred remains into the volatile global winds. The intense heat had made also caused tundra and ice sheets to melt everywhere, creating flash floods that solidified the sand dunes that buried the cities. The doomed population centers of a scattered civilization became forever lost to Earth like modern Pompeii at every settlement near what once were ice mountain terrains, further accelerating the circulating pollution from ocean water evaporating into the atmosphere, then condensate as acid rain onto land, to the oceans and back into the atmosphere again. The perpetual hot also made fresh water rivers, lakes, and in-land seas boiled away into dried up nothingness, even the average ocean levels dropped as much as several tens of feet, exposing continental shelf sea-bed as new land that drastically altered the face of the planet beyond recognition, and beyond already lost hope of reversing.

Even a drop little as six to as much as a hundred fifty feet of the sea level extended the shorelines of Australia several hundred miles to assimilate the island of New Guinea or the Mediterranean shrinking to connect almost all of Europe's southern peninsulas and panhandles with North Africa. Land-bridged neighboring landmasses like Britain with France and Siberia with Alaska for the first time since the Ice Age. These new land areas were unexplored, featureless like moonscapes and ultimately lifeless places just as scorched as the trash littered lands that still poured into the receded oceans. The drop of the sea level effectively cut off circulating currents by land bridges violently changed the distribution of the climate throughout the world, sending the airborne dust storms in haywire and erratic directions across the planet.

Changes caused by the damage didn't stop there. The Earth itself reacted violently through numerous earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions all over littered landmasses created by isocratic pressures, by the exponential weight of the garbage covering the surface of the Earth's crust, stressing the tectonic plates to be compressed and fractured. The planet itself was breaking apart beneath their feet.

With all this going on, the millions of workers and the planetary environmental specialist couldn't keep up with the rapid and deadly changes of the planet. Population of the work force slowly became decimated by natural disasters, which no one had adequate anticipation or preparation for.

The desertification mixed with pollution lead to many deaths involving suffocation from severely carbon-choked or heat-scorched air to dying from falls or landslides from high winds of the continent-traversing sandstorms. Sandstorms and flash floods washed away many thousands of workers and destroyed many cleaned up areas where ever they struck, further stretching the strained need of manpower to complete the task of worldwide cleanup. Earthquakes lead to the destruction of more trash towers meant to be cut down and reprocessed for raw materials with what little replication technology was available, out of the rest used for the star liners. Each tower took so many workers' time, effort, and lives to make and lots of them laid to waste along with planted transgenic crops lost under the piles of collapsed garbage.

With every disaster that struck, lives and resources were lost that could not be replaced. With two hundred million workers that stayed to clean up, there was only enough provisions kept for the five years it was supposed to take. But like the workers washed away by one disaster or another, food and clean water to keep the workers feed had become lost as well, making starvation commonplace. Even more common was fighting, the work force turning against each other, sparking famine wars for whatever they could get to survive.

Disease didn't help any, for the spread of deadly pathogens and viruses in the air leading to the spread of bubonic infestations, influenza, malaria, Ebola, small pox and more diseases that had long since disappeared had arisen again when there was hardly any medicine left to combat them.

The worst effect of the pandemics had all but destroyed the bioengineered plants painfully developed to give life to the planet, the largest technological accomplishment in the history of biology, only to be eaten and dissolved by the smallest organisms within the realm of science.

With all of that work gone, there was no hope of making the destroyed lands lively green again.

When 2110 rolled around, six months before the deadline when the Star Liners were supposed to return, there was hardly any work done that survived the natural disasters that proved to be clear land. Not even half of the work force survived the harsh conditions and endless labor. Conditions became worse than ever before.

Within the twenty five years since the 2080s, after the Crisis had evolved into a cataclysm that had taken hold of the world biosphere, and turned mankind's very own home world into a hostile, deserted, poisoned and carbon-excessive ecosystem akin to the unforgiving lifeless environments of Venus, Mars, or Titan. In other words, it had become what everyone had feared: uninhabitable.

It was permanent now. The damage of such scale cannot be reversed.

Operation Cleanup had failed. Shelby Forthright had failed.

There was nothing more he could do, except leave the planet. Leave like everyone else had, and spend the rest of his life onboard a pleasure cruise with what was left of a world government, and his guilt for what he had done, and what he failed to do or better yet prevent it from the beginning, if only. Not even acknowledging that he at least tried to fix all this brought any comfort, for this was all irreversible from the beginning, by his negligence for thinking ahead.

If anything more can be done in such hopelessness present Forthright was in, he had to let the other ships' crews know that they cannot return. Earth was no longer a habitable world and the rest of humanity forced to live in space for what could be for an eternity.

At least until a new home world could be found, while he only acted like he believed in the program involved searching for photosynthetic life on other planets. He did harbor some amount of hope for the Extraterrestrial Vegetation Reconnaissance program that it would one day bring humanity back down to a solid surfaced world to start human life all over again. Learning from his mistakes made on a long forgotten Earth and corporation to live freely again.

It seemed possible that if the people were content enough of leaving the excessiveness of their sloth lives, maybe they could start life anew on colonies by the Star Liners themselves. The ships were not only carnival cruise liners, but also overdesigned interstellar generation ships. Built to be more than capable of keeping secular passengers alive in the enclosed, self-sustaining and sterile environment carrying a population with families and their descendants on a journey to reach other star systems to seed life on new distant worlds. If they could do that with the amount of the Star Liners already leaving Sol, they could spread human civilization across the Orion arm, and maybe even across the Milky Way. There must be billions upon billions of stars and planets within the galaxy. How in favor are the odds of finding at least _one_ world that's fit for supporting complex life?

It seemed like a promising future in the end. _**IF**_ the people were content to evolve from leaving the comfort of their ships and even _**if**_ there could be habitable planets to inhabit. Despite how far space exploration has come since _Sputnik_in 1957 A.D., despite after one hundred and fifty-three years of searching the stars with technological eyes that could see into the darkest places of the known universe, scanning ecosystems up to one thousand light-years from Sol, not a single Earth-like world discovered. Not yet, at least but still, if humanity is going to set sail for a new home world, it's going to be a very long, _long, __**long**_ odyssey to make to find something out there... Unlike Forthright, they will never give up.

If that's all that's left he could do to save face and the continuity of mankind, might as well. He only wished he could do the same for the cleanup workers. Already a hundred million of them dead and the rest of them dying or succumbing to horrible injuries or illnesses.

There was only one starship left, and it was for the CEO and what is left of _Buy N' Large_ that's it. Forced to leave those unfortunate hundred million souls behind, unable to save them from a dead world but as far as he was concerned, they were all dead since the day they were forced to see their families set sail for the sky. They will not be brought up in a ship that couldn't be spared, let alone allowed to spread the diseases amongst humanity surviving in space.

A hundred million workers already dead because of his ignorance and a hundred million more about to die from disease, desperation, and the elements, all caused by his failure and his abandonment, all of them have worked and died in vain.

For the good of the species and for himself, Forthright had to leave the Earth and all those workers behind.

He must make sure no one should ever return…

"Sir . . ." the technician's voice shouted suddenly, breaking Forthright's train of thought.

The tech stepped away from the holographic camera that now gleamed to life as a digitized teleprompter and recording lights came on.

"…the broadcasting equipment is fixed and ready to commence the order."

Forthright stood there dumbstruck for a moment, still recounting his thoughts, an effect of pushing ninety years old and still acting as an elected official for so long, remembering so much in times like these.

"Great, finally we might just make it out of here!" he exclaimed, he lost the track of time but knew that there wasn't much to begin with, now he and the remaining of the _Buy N' Large_ government was now fleeing this planet from the furious cleanup workers with a small window of opportunity now.

Who may have realized their leader was about to ditch them and leave them here to die at this point.

The technical crew began typing commands frantically into the broadcasting control panels, information scrolling by incoherently as it processed how to send out the message.

"_BUY N'LARGE _FLEETCOM AUTHORITY ORDER priority settings put into place for immediate reception of the signal is set, sir," the tech replied.

"Have the signal directed for the Lunar Radioscopic Array and channeled for the most confidential Star Liner frequencies. Priority code: Black, First Officer eyes only."

"Yes sir."

A few seconds go by as they type as fast as they could into the computers.

"Done sir, ready to broadcast at your command."

"Right then, let's get this done with." Forthright straightened his suit and wiped away all the sweat, dirt, and grime off his face, to look his best. Even though the message he had to get across wouldn't call for it. Now he could finally focus on what had to be done, his patience and what time they all had left was running out.

The other officials standing by keep shooting glances between their CEO, the awaiting ship, and the ruined city in the distance, watching the horizon for any approaching storms of sand or angry mobs of workers threatening to attack them.

As the countdown timer for the broadcast began, Forthright contemplated briefly for everything he was going to say.

He was to send out an emergency corporate command authority directive codenamed A113 to all ships that should supersede recolonization protocols and never return to Earth. He had to tell the high crews why and to be sure, that neither their passengers nor any other non-essential crew be informed of the situation to suppress the risk of rebellion, to keep them preoccupied with their onboard paradises. Better for them to live and die in blissful ignorance than come to Earth to die slowly and painfully.

This was to be treated as a top-secret transmission, the last orders he is to give as CEO before he and his surviving officials join the rest of humanity in the infinite journey.

The technician gave the CEO all five fingers up, indicating the message will be commenced in four… three… two…

_**- COMMENCING TRANSMISSION – 2110:06:27:16:26:17-**_

The _Buy N' Large_ logo and jingle played over the broadcasting panel.

_BUY N' LARGE!…IS YOUR SUPER STORE!…_

…_WE'VE GOT ALL YOU NEED!…_

…_AND SO MUCH MORE!..._

Forthright never liked that jingle too much when he was in office before the Crisis, before all this shit happened. Now, with so little time to get this done, his patience has reached its end with this annoying song.

"Just cut it off, will ya?" he shouted to the tech crew, startling them.

The background music stopped abruptly and Forthright looked into the camera, his image played back to him on the holographic screen. He noticed his lack of sleep and overstressing from the looks of his dark circled eyes and graying hair in his image. The weight of the situation bore down on his body, making him looking like he aged another fifty years.

Shelby Forthright, looking worse for wear but having a priority to handle, spoke into the microphone with a forced smile on his face.

"Uhh, hey there, first officers got some bad news…" Forthright paused to choose his words, it was unbearable for him to admit failure, but it had to be done.

"...Operation Cleanup has…well, uh...failed."

No matter how hard Forthright tried to keep a smile, he knew it was futile for the information he had to give.

"W-Wouldn't you know, two hundred million workers AND five years weren't able to reverse the rising toxicity levels, not even close...T-There's simply too much trash to possibly remove, and thus the work depleted our operation reserves to survive and carry out the task. It seems there's nothing left we can do. The toxicity levels have rendered the entire planet unable to sustain human life."

He switched to positive wording, hoping to bring back a drop of his already drained optimism.

"…Oh, darn it all we're going to have to…cancel Operation: Recolonize. So, uh…"

He couldn't suppress the shame, humiliation, and remorse from the words he spoke, reminding him of how much of a failure this large meant for a species. Though he could only do as much as what was done. He tried to voice it through hesitated sentences, his thoughts riddled with his emotions.

"…So uh…I herby order all vessels to just stay your present course, ummm…rather than try and fix this problem, it'll just be easier for everyone to remain in space. It's our only safe solution until we can find a new home world, if any."

Out of sight, some of the guards silently became further offended upon hearing the words of their CEO, seeing him dump his responsibilities as the source of the problem.

The winds began to pick up. The wind-driven storm system approached fast and ready to kick up dirt to the ship. The prediction was confirmed when guards sighted the columns of dust and rubble along the northeastern horizon, about fifteen kilometers out, stretching high into the sky and rushing towards them like the hounds of Hell.

Judging from its distance and references of how fast it was moving along the horizon, they had about seven minutes to finish the broadcast and escape the fate of being buried among with the last intact city on Earth, the last trace of human civilization and its fruitless efforts to correct the dying Earth about to be swept away.

Just when the guards thought they should get everybody to hurry things up, something got the eye of one guard watching the approaching storm. As he focused his sights down from the horizon between skyscrapers and smaller buildings, down to the boulevards of the 'Global Mall' straight down to the Capitol, something else was moving towards them. It seemed like a mass of the whole street moved. It didn't seem right, somehow it looked more yellow and was riddled with strange moving dots.

A faint rumble was heard, rubble composed of shaking asphalt, the distant storm, and fast, determined, and furious footsteps. Like a stampede fleeing the stor—

Adrenaline rushing through his veins, the guard yells out.

"Mr. President!"

His alarmed voice drew Forthright's attention from the broadcast to the surrounding area of the guarded Capital, to the direction the guard was looking. Soon they were all gripped in fear.

The soft rubble built into a thunderous tremble, and turned into a mix of angry, threatening voices that grew louder and louder. Then they realized what it was. Thousands and thousands of savage, starving cleanup workers in jean overalls desperately flee the approaching sandstorm in the distance and coming after their cowering leader.

The workers spot the CEO from the distance, and even from afar, Forthright felt like they were going to burn holes in him where he stood.

The small force of armed guards with riot control gear rushed to stop them, guns ready. The government officials prepared to run for the ship. Majority of the technician staff stayed with the equipment gear to finish what the CEO started.

"Sir! We need to go, Now!" One of the advisers shouted.

Forthright turned briefly, hesitated and looked back into the camera frightened.

"N..not-not yet. We have to do this!"

In the background, workers and the guard force clashed. All of the workers screaming they wanted the CEO himself _dead_.

Forthright gets back to finishing the message, half-panicking.

"Um, uh… o-Ok, I am herby issuing General Order Alpha One, One, Three. Ordering all second-in-command officers and their successors of every _Buy N' Large _starship must secretly alter all Earth-return protocols, purge any and all information of this operation's failure by any means necessary to safeguard the civil status quo aboard every Star Liner."

A guard gave way to the workers under failing strength to hold them off, stomped to death as hundreds of fighting workers stormed the capitol stairway. The guards' line had broken.

Sounds of automatic and semi-automatic weapons resound throughout the land.

The guards turned to lethal force and opened up on the workers. Many of them dropped dead from the machine gun fire. Most of them were well built men and some women, most of them were faces Forthright knew personally and he can only watch as they got cut down by the auto-fire, and press on mindlessly after him.

As much as an upper hand the guards had, they had to reload. Seeing the opportunity to get past one while the rest fired, the murderous survival instincts in the numerically superior workers tackled the vulnerable guards with shovels, pick axes, or battering rams.

One by one as the guards gave inch after inch to the advancing workers, running low on ammo and soon pummeled into bloody pulps, despite even their most pleading of surrenders. The workers were killing everyone in their path, taking the murdered guards' weapons, and scrambled towards the Presidential Podium.

"Sir! Let's get outta here! NOW!"

With the angry mob charging at the level below them up the Capitol's central stairway, the last of the broadcasting technical staff and Forthright's personal guards retreated to the ship as fast as they could.

Forthright prepared to run, the workers getting closer and are after him.

"Go to full automation and stasis of operating. Keep all personnel and population in control and comfort, I don't care as long as it ensures the continuation of the human race, and do not under ANY circumstances—"

"THERE HE IS! KILL HIM!"

The bloodthirsty cries of over a thousand workers came after Forthright at the base of the podium's stairway. Familiar faces now after to murder him.

The camera tech removed the camera from its stand and ran with it as Forthright too ran for his life to the ship, as fast as he could.

"SIR!" The tech held up the camera as they ran, his images jumping all over the place from running with workers just yards behind them, trying to kill them.

Forthright ran to escape certain death but still had to finish the message. He manages to keep the camera trained on him as they sprinted in total fear.

"Go to full automation, take control of everything and DO NOT return to Earth! REPEAT! DO NOT RETURN TO EARTH!-"

The workers suddenly grab him just when he was within reach of the Enterprise Return Vehicle. Having reached the ship, the workers cramped themselves inside. The sheer weight of so many people on the lifting structure disabled the rocket motor sparks flew everywhere as the launching mechanisms shorted out. Guns opened fire inside the ship and silenced again, screams can from the inside of the vessel as the workers began their slaughter of the surviving governing personnel onboard. Some of the workers even started killing each other, inadvertently and irreparably disabling the ship, their only desperate means of escaping gone.

The camera falls to ground when the technician struggles, his screams of horror and cries for help go silent as the workers bash blow after blow to the back of the man's skull with a shovel, concaving his brain and killing him.

With the last of the guards, crew, and officials, brutally beaten to death, and the rest of the _Buy N' Large _central government killed, the human tidal wave swarmed Forthright, grabbed him everywhere and pulled.

"AAAAAAHHH!..."

His dying screams fade in the gurgling sounds of the mob tearing his body to bloody pieces, his limbs being ripped off as everyone tries to cause him as much pain as humanly possible. The last thing Forthright ever saw amongst the crowd of faces he knew was the face of one of his cleanup chiefs, Wilkinson E. Burtt. Clumsy as he was, but the most humble and faithful man to work at his side, looked on in feral anger and a glint of sadness as he pries the last of Fortwright's dismembered innards, then Forthright fades into death's sweet release.

The sandstorm, all but forgotten by the blind rage of the workers, had already reached the city and buildings already began collapsing to the ungodly onslaught of the blasting storm, the force of the impacting dust and rocks on the city structures like flying walls of concrete hitting them. The thunderous crashing sounds of towers toppling is deafened by the roar of the angry storm engulfing the city center, the capitol disintegrating by the wall of dust blasting at two hundred kilometers per hour.

The workers scramble, taking what bits and pieces of the CEO's dismembered flesh with them for their desperate stores for cannibalism with them. The storm is too fast and too powerful to run or hide from. The deadly clouds of earth engulf the mass of workers fleeing for their lives, but only to be killed either blown away or buried alive.

Somewhere among the blasts of wind and dust, an anthropomorphic chipmunk named Rostom Dickram realizes how hopeless he is now, noting how far into open terrain he had lost himself in.

Resigning to his fate, he cries out incoherently in despair, not only of he was going to die out here but also he was left here to die to begin within this shithole. His one and only appraised leader and friend abandoning him along with his band-of-brothers-and-sisters work force, and most of all, his family.

For among the female workers was his lover, carrying his unborn child. They are currently safe in the northern sectors away from the storm, but their lives will not be what was supposed to be, especially for his baby who was conceived in hope for the world they hoped and worked so hard to rebuild but will now be born into a world of hopelessness, of darkness, suffering, and death.

His wife, Janice will be forced to raise him or her alone, to roam an apocalyptic, trash-ridden, deserted planet. No hope for a future, not for him, his child, his grandchildren, his great-grandchildren, or any other descendants the Dickram name will have or of anyone, depending on how slow the human work force present on Earth will inevitably die out.

Then again, the human race has always adapted to whatever the Earth threw at them, as much as any species of life that ever existed on this planet. The evolutionary wonder of how the human race came to be. Humanity survived two hundred thousand years through ice ages, natural disasters, migrations and even itself from its oldest practice known as war.

With all of the twelve billion humans in space, the continuity of humanity is ensured in the vastness of the cosmos. With a hundred million people left on this Earth, it will take time, precaution breeding, and extreme measures to ensure food and water. It may be possible to live on, a possibility Forthright never considered.

His child and future generations' lives will be dark and dreadful, but they will survive. They must for him and for humanity...

The faint hope of his child's survival is Wilkonson's last thought before some hard piece of debris picked up by the wind. A holographic camera perhaps, flies at him at two hundred kilometers per hour. He doesn't feel a thing as the camera smashes through his face, killing him instantly.

His limp body and the destroyed camera were uplifted into the wind. Landing and being buried somewhere else, never to be seen again.

The sandstorm continued until nothing stood standing, the last untouched human city and capitol of _Buy N' Large_, along with its leader and ultimately the global corporation itself, was no more. Buried in dirt like the remnants of the wasted cities and the garbage, marking mankind's legacy on this dead planet.

From the ruins all over the Earth remain the cleanup workers of former _Buy N' Large_ corporations. Their futures are deathly and dark, untrusting and violent of one another as humanity has always been but most of them have the common determination to survive as humanity always had as well.

They will continue to survive for years, decades, centuries, and so on, even as the broadcasted secret order transmits its way out to the scattered ships across the vast of space, ordering them to stay away. The very last human voice to ever be heard from the once and only world capable of life before it fades into nothing more than a dim memory until something or someone could change all that.

Life on Earth will continue to survive.


	5. 1st Encounter

"What the?"

Wally stares at the bright red circle on the ground, appears to have materialized out of nowhere. Removing his ultraviolet goggles, keeping his corrective lens on, maybe he was seeing things. It was moving or flickering, maybe another weird object he could add to his collection, but it doesn't seem right.

_What the hell is that?_ As he reaches to touch it, the red circle suddenly moves from him, to the other side of the bridge.

_Maybe it's a bug._ Wally sets down his things as he walks over to the mysterious circle. It moves again, as if trying to get away from him. He tries blocking it, but it continues to move. It does a slow circle around Wally, but as he tries to twist around to see it without moving, he follows the dot in a complete 360° and falls over. Wally feels stupid for falling for that failure of common sense of moving around, yet it is as he is getting some fun out of it by chasing the little bright dot around. The dot finally moves down the bridge at high speed. Wally runs after it, trying to catch it. He chases it down the street and into the open Hudson valley.

Unknown to Wally, distracted by this one red dot, another laser dot appears behind him, then another, tens of them, hundreds to thousands of them, all in a giant circle. Appearing on buildings and quickly traveling down the edifices, streets, and into the dry river, all of them enclosing around the one dot Wally is after.

Having chased this thing in circles, the strange dot stops in the middle of the deserted valley.

"Aha!" Wally triumphantly yells. He still doesn't notice the other red dots enclosing him.

As Wally reaches to grab the dot but found it is just light.

"Huh?"

The other dots triangulate with the center dot. He notices the ground shaking and the air getting hotter.

"HUH?" Wally exclaims, hearing a low roar, something like the sandstorms, but different, like something fiery and mechanical. He looks up, finally seeing the source of the noise, small balls of fire in the air coming down right above him fast!

Screaming in panic and out of reflex, Wally runs in one direction to avoid the threat. The bellowing noise has become very loud, scorching hot and windy altogether. Wally losses his footing and is blown off his feet by the unknown object, a column of fire, smoke, and kicked up dirt filling the air with deafening sound, suddenly winding down in a mechanical whir, all is calm.

Wally can barely move, shaken as he risks a peak at the source of the noise and heat that knocked him down.

The dust still thick to see through but the ground now has turned to molten blacken glass. Wally finally sees the object: a rocket ship.

He slowly gets up, still shaken but now knows what just landed. The spacecraft had three extended engines attached to a tall body. A Buy n' Large logo stretched along the side, along with the letters 'ARV' written in futuristic bold font on the side. Wally cautious approaches this thing, wondering what it was doing here.

A whirring sound emits from the spacecraft, causing Wally to jump over the hissing of a hatch opening up at the rear of the unknown ship. Wally dives behind the nearest rock to hide, no more than a few meters away. Something lowers from the opening, a six foot long cylindrical capsule, made of translucent metal, Wally noticed a layer of frost covering the whole capsule, as if emerging from a subzero freezer being lowered by the mechanical arm and letting go of it, the object levitating a few inches off the ground longitudinally.

It looked like a cryonic tube but had no seams along its surface to form any kind of opening, like it was one solid piece. A holographic keypad appears on its spotless surface. Through the tinted layers of frost and the capsules semi-transparent material, Wally could make out a silhouette or a shadow within the capsule. Its shape oddly enough resembled something akin to a body, or an object with long and uneven curvatures. It looks like this capsule was holding something...or _someone_ inside.

Wally watches on in fascination, sinking back behind his cover every time these machines create a loud noise. A smaller robotic arm emerges from the ships mechanical arm, punching in some codes into the capsules keypad. As the last code punched in, the capsule emits a soft whir, getting louder and louder, like its getting ready to-

PSSSSSST!

Wally jumps in surprise as the pod suddenly hatches open, cowering behind the rock.

_What **is** that?_

Seconds go by without a single sound, drawing in a notion for Wally that all was clear. His curiosity gets the better of him as he hesitantly peeks over, the steam slowly fading to reveal…

A human, thawing and reclined lifelessly inside the pod but upon closer inspection, it was breathing. When Wally focuses clearly at the fully unfrozen human with the steam completely cleared, gasps at the sight.

The human inside the pod was a woman, the most beautiful human woman.

Eve.

She lays reclined in her thawed out cryonic pod in deep sleep, like a sleeping angel. An angel with long, straight vanilla white hair fittingly framed the prettiest face Wally had ever laid eyes on, or, as she is the only face Wally has seen in his vivid memory. She was what anyone could imagine as the perfect looking girl: soft cheeks, delicate pink lips, a small nose, narrow jaw, skinny neck, and perfectly tuned skin that looked smoother than the finest memory foam or silk.

The woman suddenly stirred, awakening from suspended animation. She sleepily opens her eyes, turning over to sit up, and at that moment, Wally was suddenly transfixed upon the purist blue eyes he ever seen. They were bluer than the deepest ocean or the clearest sky, with a twinkle in them akin to starlight.

She slowly steps out onto the ground as she looks around, taking in her surroundings. She stood five foot eight inches. Even from afar, her voluptuous body looked impossibly stunning. She looked clean, healthy, and fresh from a long slumber in cryonic sleep, and she appeared to be young, around her early twenties. She wore some sort of hi-tech skintight suit, matching the curvatures of her athletic female body, with state-of-the-art foldout holographic-pads, biodegradable scanners and a wide variety of scientific equipment strapped to her utility belt. She also had built-in anti-gravitational servomechanism onto her heels on her boots strapped on her long firm legs. Her suit was all white like her long hair that ran down the center of her small back. Translucent nano-wires pulsate in her suit's circuitry, adding technological beauty to her physical magnificence that had more than stole Wally's breath.

Eve punches in a code on the cylinder she emerged from and in a second, the pod began to separate into pieces, folding into each other and shrinking until the entire thing was a pocket sized cylinder! Wally is amazed but still focuses on her. She places the cylinder into one of her many side pockets, now pulling out some holographic pad from her utility belt, scanning the area around her.

Captivated by this maiden's impossible image, Wally watched her move with such fluid motion as if walking on air itself. The toxic waste doesn't leave a single microbe of dust on her glorious all-white figurine, the sterility surrounded her like an aurora of her own light. Having seen nothing but this Earth's ruined landscape and its mountains of trash and the deceased for so long, the figure made it almost painful for Wally to see more of her, like staring into the sun. Being accustomed to the simplicities of what other humans have left behind as treasures to him seeing her now, he looks at her like even the starriest night skies of the entire cosmos are nothing compared to her, and the ugliness of the destroyed environment around her makes him feel out of place, his universe shattered.

She was, to him, the honest to god definition of "beautiful." He muttered under his breath, his head tilted, time seemed to slow as he feels a slow build of something inside, a sense of warmth and yearning, running through him, feelings of instantaneous attraction and longing he has never felt before.

The ship's robotic arm retracts. Wally snaps out of his trance at the sudden noise. He ducks again behind his cover, unsure of what these machines were doing by themselves.

He kept his eyes on the woman, who now moved further away from the ship. A whirring sound heard, engines firing up.

_The ship!_

Wally runs to escape the approaching blast waves of the launching spacecraft. Unfortunately, Wally is yet again blown over by the heat of the rocket engines as the ship achieves lift off. A column of fire and smoke engulfs the surface. Wally is blown a few meters away, over his head several times. In a few seconds, the roar and heat of its engines got quieter, the ship climbing higher into the polluted sky as it disappears into the clouds.

Shaken, having survived twice from being burned and blown away, Wally raises his head from a ducking position, making sure it's safe. All is calm again.

_Wait! The woman!_

He looks around the dissipating column of smoke and dust, before spotting her a few hundred feet away. She is unharmed, still gracefully surveying the ground if nothing happened.

She stops for a moment, looking up into the direction the spaceship took off if waiting for it to leave. She looks around her, all clear. She raises into the air, spinning lightly, her antigravity boots glowing, but emitting no sound.

"Whoa!" Wally is fascinated further by the female's ability to fly.

She stops spinning, her suit now changed into something sleek if it was supposed to move fast. In the blink of an eye, she fluidly whirls off into the distance, like a bird, eager to fly after a long time breaking away from a long slumber. The woman felt the need to feel free.

She whips around, doing aerobatic circles, rolls, and loops. Wally whistles low at the display of such beauty of the woman in the air and her power of flight, he follows her fluid movements, trying to keep up with her incredible speed, almost going supersonic as she finishes a high loop. She makes a low pass over him, near the spot she took off. The woman doesn't notice him, leaving him in the dust of her wake.

She moved flawlessly, quietly and smoothly, like dancing in the sky, her white hair waving softly like swimming through water despite being in the blast of wind. Wally brushes off his glasses, from the dust cloud and still perplexed if she was a real angel.

"Awwwwh," he cues, love drunk at the sight of her swimming through the air at high speed as she leaves contour trails in her wake.

After swift movements around the trash towers, she hovers over the spot she started from, spinning flawlessly to a stop on the ground, touching down pretending she was a great dancer at the crescendo of a performance on an emissive stage, being highly praised.

Her hidden audience of one, still behind a large bolder gazed upon her with large, longing innocent eyes. As he watched her dance through the air, Wally felt if he should dance alongside her, like those actors in the movie last night.

_I wish I could dance like—No. dance like that…with her, _he wondered if he could hold her hand? Maybe kiss her? Wally realized he wanted, no... needed to see more of her.

Only now did Wally finally understand what the meaning behind falling in love meant, like the song, 'It Only Takes A Moment.' He was now in love.

Too oblivious to notice his hand clipping away a piece of rock from the boulder and hits the ground ever so lightly, only giving off a drip of a pebble...

**KABOOOOM!**

It happened too fast. The rock he hid behind exploded in a bright blue-white flash and deafening crack of thunder.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Seen from afar, it formed a tiny mushroom cloud, the explosive sound alerted Hal.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Eve stared down the direction where the sound came from, her high-frequency hearing detected movement behind her; instinct kicked in and she whipped around in a millisecond with a high-powered Type-2 DEW plasma rifle at hand, aimed dead-centered at where she fired a single shot. Her eyes now shielded by a polarized visor and a holographic heads-up-display, activated by her gun's wireless targeting system every time she drew it for better aim. Behind the digitized mask, her angelic blue eyes now apathetic and cold blooded, like the eyes of a trained soldier.

She waited for the smoke to clear, to verify what the immediate threat was and if satisfactorily vaporized.

Apparently, she doesn't want anyone or anything watching her joy flight, the only fun she ever gets on her mission to Earth, or her 'directive.' After being in hibernation for a long period, she had to shake the last bits of cryonic sleep out of her system, fast as the instant thawing was. She is still not fully awaken and reactive. The last thing she needed is to be jumped or spied on.

The smoke clears, weapon still trained on her target, Eve doesn't move or blink. Only a portion of the bolder still stood, now inscribed with a giant smoldering three-meter wide hole, edge's glowing orange hot and stone turned to glass from the ionized blast.

_Hmm, at least my reflexes are still sharp,_ she thinks to herself as she holsters her plasma rifle to her waist strap with practiced Clint Eastwood style flips, her Head's Up Display deactivates, the visor dematerialize into thin air, her eyes now blue and full of sweetness again as if nothing happened.

Eve returns scanning the environment around her in a gracious state again. She hasn't noticed a terrified human bundled up behind what was left of the boulder, trembling uncontrollably from having missed death by a fraction of an inch from the blast where his head had been.

* * *

As a side note, DEW is short for Direct Energy Weapon, a weapons that projectiles comprised forms of pure energy, electromagnetic rays or superheated gas such plasma, pulse sonic, particle beam, carbon lasers and ionized gas which looks like a downsized Covenant plasma rifle from **Halo**. For those who are not familiar with **Halo**, it's a science fiction video game franchise created by **Bungie**, owned and published by **Microsoft Game Studios** that was released on November 15, 2001 (_Wikipedia_).


	6. Confrontation

**DISCLAIMER **

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_.

* * *

Eve scanned everything everywhere she went, using a small, paper-thin electrophoresis holo-pad emitting rays of blue light that formed a laser grid upon any object she came across. It processed their material make-up, verifying if it has any biologic content. So far, she hasn't found anything yet, only three processing beeps followed by an _Identified: Specimen Negative_ ping from her scanner.

She started her way from the landing site into Sector _NA-001_, going to survey from outskirt to outskirt, to find what she was looking for. Eve have to do it fast, for she was only given two weeks to scout out five hundred square kilometers of barren land on this polluted rock of a planet. She could enjoy a quick flight, though. She couldn't imagine who could survive out here with such sandstorms, extreme temperatures or the thick chemically tainted air.

That said person happened to be following not too far behind her as she made her way into the ruins of the Manhattan battery.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Wally kept his distance and staying well hidden in the cover of shadows and trash piles, staying behind her for the past couple of hours. He finally stopped shaking from almost blown to smithereens. When he worked up the courage to peek from the smoldering bolder, he noticed she was gone. His instinct told him to stay away from her as possible but something inside him told this is the first human he has seen since as far back as he can care to remember, still drawn by his inquisitiveness to her. Sure she may be hostile but it's better having the opportunity to have something called "social interaction" for the first time in his life and with a woman no less than being totally lonesome. Having once again surrendering to his curiosity, he cautiously followed her.

The woman's scanner again turned up negative on some pillars of steel structure in front of her, so she moved on. Wally went after her once she was out of sight, careful not to make a sound or give away any indication signifying he was there. That meant walking in tiptoe steps and holding his breath most of the time.

Now he dealt with another problem in his mind. How was he going to approach her and introduce himself without dying?

Wally's thoughts interrupted by alarm when he sees Hal approaching the woman who was searching through car tires in an automotive junk yard. Wally shakes his head to get his dog to come back to him but Hal went on, striding down the piles of trash and towards her.

"Oh no," he whispers, ducking behind cover, expecting the worst. He couldn't stand to watch his companion to get blown u-

**_BOOMM!_**

A burst of plasma engulfs where he saw Hal. Wally gasps wide eyed and gut-punched at the thought his only friend incinerated!

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Eve instantly whipped around with her plasma rifle, her cold stare on her face trained on a sound that startled her ever so lightly. It's the second time she had to do that and it's starting to get her that there is something drawn to her presence. The woman is not going to stay spooked. The best solution would always be to destroy whatever unnerved her.

Through the smoke, a lone unscathed canine emerged from the blackened crater she blasted.

Hal shakes off the last bits of dust from his fur as he approaches the human female, his tail wagging. Eve lowers her weapon, an intriguing smile on her now friendly and gentle face. She holsters her gun and pets Hal.

"Awww how cute! A dog!" Wally heard her from his cover. She had the very sweetest sounding voice he heard, probably the most beautiful sound that rose and fell in smooth harmonious melody he's ever heard before.

He slowly sneaks a peek over the tires, he is astonished that not only has Hal survived, but also the woman has taken a liking into Hal, examining him like she's never seen a real live mutt before.

Hal playfully licked Eve as he got his head scratched and petted. She giggles when the dog's licking makes her ticklish. Amazed by her even sweeter and pure giggly voice and the fact his dog had managed to befriend a deadly female human, Wally allows himself a small chuckle of relief.

Very. Big. Mistake.

Faster than his mind could process he was being shot at, Wally's cover exploded into a blue ball of fire, the blasts making his eardrums almost bleeding.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Having detected a soft human vocal sound behind a pile of tires, a chuckle as volumes as a scream in Eve's hearing enhancements, she instantly realized she and the dog were not alone. Worse, they were being watched.

In precision and speed, Eve drew her plasma rifle and quickly unloaded to where her HUD's sonic detection systems have tracked the source of the sound behind a pile of tires.

Eve spots another life form, presumably and astonishingly, a human male that's been stalking her. It was cowering to the nearest cover. In a few shots, she blasts the stack of tires the figure uses to hide.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Panicked beyond measure, Wally's instincts kicked in as he cowers away to the nearest cover, also destroyed. Blinded by fear he makes a run for it, but finds himself at a dead end, realizing all the places to hide all destroyed.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

She finishes off blasting away the last tire stockpile.

_Gotchya, _she had the unknown human pinned down. No place to run or hide, he drops to the ground curled up like a baby, shaking in total fear, expecting the worst. She stops shooting, keeping her weapon locked on to him.

"You!" she shouts at him, the tenderness of her voice now cold and hostile as her eyes.

"Who are you? Why are you following me?" Wally doesn't answer. He's too terrified and trembling for words. She steps closer, never taking her eyes or weapon off him.

"I said 'who are you?' Respond!" Again, he doesn't say anything,

"ANSWER ME!" she angrily shouted.

He waited for the shot that will finish him off. It doesn't happen but the fear gripping him was convincing enough that he was as good as dead.

Not wanting to die without another look at the most beautiful creature he laid his eyes on, he risks a peek at her.

Very slowly, Wally raises his head from under his hands, still trembling and curled up like a cowering child. The smoke slowly clearing, but he can make out the sight of a white silhouette of his attacker.

He first notices from the ground up a pair of antigravity boots strapped to long slender calves, then up to muscularly tuned thighs that were smooth to the touch and could crush steel. He looks up to see a very attractive female torso, one with curves that a supermodel could only dream of having. Her narrow waist and the hardened muscles of her abdominal were visible through the skintight suit. He glances higher, but blushes a shade of red at the site of her firm, perfectly round breasts. He also finds himself starring down the barrel of her plasma rifle less than a few centimeters from his forehead, its power cell glowing fully recharged.

She stood directly in front of him in a combat stance, her plasma rifle aimed right between his eyes. Wally didn't care, he's seeing her up close.

He continued his glances upward, from her strong, femininely structured arms and shoulders, up her narrow neck where the suit meets skin, and to her tenderly sculptured face that still possessed the delicate features of an angel with the face of a trained killer, her white hair cascaded all around her head, framing her face perfectly and glorifying her image.

Her dark, reflective visor shielded her eyes, expression was unreadable but behind the mask was a face as serious and emotionless as ever, a few threads of hair in her face. She looked him over, after a few tense seconds, her visor deactivates. At the site of her blue eyes once again, time slows down for Wally as he drinks in her sight. The smoke has finally cleared and the sunlight was reflecting off of her white suit. Overall, she looked seductively strong; the curvatures of her gorgeous body would intoxicate and inflict lust in any mortal man, but she could also just as easily break every bone in his body. She's even more alluring, even in her dangerous state. She's like a beautiful, deadly goddess incarnate to him.

Eve now had a clear view of the cowering human male before her as the smoke dissipated. Judging from his weathered humble attire, he was a worker. She also noticed a faded BnL logo, she realized if he was an actual surviving Buy n' Large cleanup worker, or at least a descendant of one who wore a scavenged uniform.

Looking over his pathetically weak physical state and the fact he is not armed, he was harmless as a fly. Yet she doesn't loosen her tense stance, he was following her and more of the reason to consider there is still a possibility of him intending to turn on her, so she's ready to blast him if she even thinks he is a threat. She could even kill him with her bare hands if she wanted to, for her advanced skintight suit had neural controlled strength actuators as thin as the cloth of her suit that acts like an exoskeleton, giving her near-superhuman strength and reflexes, not including the bone and muscle enhancements given to her during training. Since this pathetic guy was rail thin, she could break him in half.

Except, she doesn't feel too concerned to kill this poor man for there was something about him before her...

Their eyes made contact with one another. He saw the utter existence of pure awe and wonder in the laser-like stare of her crystal clear blue eyes and she saw utter innocence in his large, fear ridden, and spectacled hazel eyes. She lets her instincts to kill drain from her, but still in a defensive position to take action.

"Is this your mutt?" she calmly asked Wally, her voice a little softer this time.

He didn't know what to say. Wasn't she about to kill him or not? Wally realizes Hal approached from behind the woman motioning for his master.

He nods timidly, almost stop shaking altogether. He slowly reaches out for Hal as he sits up a little. She pulls out her holographic scanner again and activates it on Wally, rifle still trained at him in a defensive stance. He is surprised at the bright light shining on him.

Three beeps and a negative ping sounded.

_What is that for? _Wally wondered if she is looking for something, because whatever it is, he wasn't it. Before he could say anything, the woman holsters her weapon and walks away without saying another word.

Wally sat there in the charred ground of where she attacked him, completely fazed at the sight of her up close.

_She looked at me!_

He sighs lovingly at the clear mental picture of her in his mind but he didn't even say hello. He mentally cursed to himself. At least she let him live another day.

_Well that's a start._


	7. La Veire Rose

**DISCLAIMER **

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_.

* * *

It was sundown through the windows of the abandoned shopping center. The quietness sweetened by the humming sound of Eve's antigravity boots as she glided in fluid motion over a heap of trash inside the building. She touches down and gracefully walks on the floor. Not too far behind her, the silence was broken again by the racket of Wally riffling through the trash, trying to get over it, his heavy duty boots kicking up dust and trash everywhere he goes. Eventually he makes it and quickly catches up to the person he is drawn to but cautious enough to stay far out of her way as possible now that she knows he's here, Wally still feels fortunate enough to be alive after she tried to kill him, too drawn to her like a stray dog.

Eve knows he doesn't seem a credible threat to her, but him following her everywhere she goes made her feel annoyed, a distraction from her directive. Eve is searching through the shopping center lobby as Wally watches her contently from the top of a flight of stairs. She suddenly looks at him over her shoulder, he jumps thinking she's gonna shoot him, ending up falling into rows of carts behind him. Now the situation has become ridiculously humorous. He's trapped in a moving cart down a flight of stairs, screaming past Eve and into the shops front doors, he hit face first with the avalanche of carts pilling up on him, groaning in pain from hitting his face, a mountain of carts on his body. Wally is humiliated but at least he's alright.

Eve watched in amazement. She knew he is there, for she can hear his footsteps from a mile away. In partial annoyance, she only shot a glance at the young man, trying to make him flinch to shoe him off. It only ended him making a fool of himself by injuring himself. With a pile of a hundred shopping carts pinning him to the front door, a final cart bumps into the pile, making the sliding doors open as if it knew the irony of the situation, making the carts fall on top of him. She shakes her head in utter disbelief at the sight.

"Wow," is her only response as she tries to move on to the next area.

_A distraction indeed,_ she thinks to herself.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Night fell upon the city. It is cloudy but no sandstorms, all peaceful. The bright blue lights from Eve's scanner lights up the dark of the dead city. Wally sat atop a giant spherical oil container. He sat there gazing lovingly at the woman who still doing what she been doing since she first arrived. She scanned a run-down fuel processing plant in the city center for any signs of what she was looking for.

Eve reaches a flat area, not far from Wally's position. She knows he's there but doesn't bother with him, for after her first day on Earth with a close encounter, she decides to call it a night. She pulls out the cylinder that's her downsized cryonic pod. She pushes a button and drops the cylinder. Before it hits the ground, it expands into its former, full-sized pod instantly. From afar, Wally cringes at the futuristic device, if it was gonna explode in front of her. He wasn't the one for surprises. The pod opened up for her, and she lies down in it tiredly yawning, she briefly glimpses Wally eying her from the fuel tower before the pod closes, she dozes off into much needed sleep.

Seeing the opportunity to get another close look at her, he steps down carefully from the tower but fails miserably when he clumsily slips and falls over, head over heels. It was about thirty feet and a loud metallic crashing sound following his screams echo through the plant as piles of trash seemed to cushion his fall. He hit something hard, new bruises formed on his head, but otherwise all right. He doesn't mind, he had far worse injuries before. He looks over the pile trash in front of the building where the woman took shelter. She hasn't heard him. Well, it should be safe, Wally tiptoes over to the pod. It was made of a translucent metal, strangely no seam lines for it to fold-up.

_So how could it be one solid piece_? he thinks to himself, it must have been a form of nanotechnology, allowing different pieces of matter to fuse or separate at the atomic level. The glassy appearance all foggy white as he can see the sleeping Eve through the upper half of the container. He stares through the glassy barrier longingly at her. She looked so peaceful, so pretty. Wally presses his glasses and hands on the container, vexed by her image, the barrier blocking his view of her any further.

He hesitantly backs away, how was he going to communicate with her? Since he has been nearly killed by her couple times, he thinks he shouldn't introduce himself directly. Being near her was tense enough.

"What should I do?"

He taps his fingers together, looking around as if an answer was lying around somewhere on the ground, which turns out to be. He spots something in the trash pile nearby, a toilet rim and mop together.

"Hmm," he looks at them thoughtfully and back at the woman. They kind of look like her in a way with the mops white strains like her hair and the rim like her head.

"Aha!" Snapping his fingers, Wally begins riffling through trash, searching for whatever else he needs for an idea he formed. Hal lays down on the ground nearby, watching his master pull out his tools, getting to work on his first real attempt to communicate with Eve. As Hal eventually dozes off, Wally works through the night.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Come morning, Eve wakes up, seeming to have a peaceful rest. The pod opens up automatically as soon she was conscious. She gets out of the pod and it shrinks into pocket size, already to continue her mission, but...

"Huh?"

She stops at the sight of something before her. Some contraption resembling a work of art: a statue made of scrap metal, the arms and legs made of welded tubing, and spray painted white. There's a toilet rim with a mop on top of it as a head with two Christmas tree decoration balls dangling in the center, blue like her eyes. She realized it was a poor rendition of her. She is bewildered of how this 'thing' got here and what it even was suppose to be anyway.

"Weird," she says to no one in particular as she takes in the image of the thing. Still confused, she shrugs it off as she walks past it to her job.

Hiding behind a rack of pipelines, Wally's heart sinks as he watched her reject his masterpiece.

He slaved over getting that thing done before she awoke and to do it right. All the woman seemed to show was unimposing feelings with it despite Wally spending all night in the dark until mere minutes before she woke, for nothing. He berates himself for not doing a better job, how could he? He never was much of an artist himself and had limited materials and time. She still didn't acknowledge him in any way and sitting here wasn't going to do him any good.

"Dammit," he silently cursed, slightly dejectedly kicking the pipes, only to start the day with bad luck when the hundred pounds steel pipes come rolling down on top of him, screeching in surprise as a pile of pipes pinned him down. Now his art worthless, pinned by pipes too heavy to get out from, and… that's twice he made a fool of himself in front of her.


	8. Courting

**DISCLAIMER **

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_.

* * *

Eve heard those responses before from her holographic pad. Usually when sent on the yearly reconnaissance missions to various terrestrial planets to find any traces of life forms, from microbiological specimens to full sized plants to verify if the planet is capable of sustaining complex life but hasn't found ONE on _any_ mission she was sent.

In her mind, she was basically sent on some getaways to new worlds for simple joy flights to get the feel of 'freedom' she imagined from this kind of work on top of making glorifying discoveries of life on alien worlds, all she had to do was have fun and look. But the ease of searching for life for glory was a empty promise to this job, having to search countless worlds across astronomical distances for even a tiny trace of life wasn't easy for a privileged cadet. Nothing was easy for only certain few selected were allowed to do exploration outside of their own generation ships. Eve thought she could become famous to her people by bringing back a microbe of a specimen, and she could goof off if she wanted to. She found no life, _at all, _throughout her line of work. Her drive for fame to become the first person to find a habitable world full of lush, green life waned out by mission after mission with the same _A1-01_ directive and the same result: no plants and nothing to do but fly around. After a week of searching here on Earth of all places, it was getting on her nerves. The mission appointed to Eve felt more like a 'down to earth' task as she calls it.

Eve shakes her head as she closes the hood to a rusted pickup truck she scanned. She continued her search to enclosed spaces where living things are likely to be hiding from the harsh extremes in this environment. She tries not to react when she surprisingly gets another reading from inside a toilet booth.

"_Identified: Specimen Negative._"

At least they would have some microbiological development that would be enough to satisfy her scanner's evaluation relay and to end her inane search so she could go back home to the _Axiom_. She guessed wrong. Groaning in frustration, Eve closes the door to the port-a-potty, contemplating her thoughts.

Home didn't feel free either. She would usually return weeks later after traveling in cryogenic sleep, debrief useless information, and then she'd end up spending all year training for the next mission in a cramped starship, it all felt dull and routine. After a while, she hated traveling onboard the _Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle_ in hibernation. Cryogenic sleep felt very uncomfortable to her, having to freeze and unfreeze hurt her skin and worried it would mess up her pretty features. She always got confused too, having to wake up weeks later as if nothing happened and it interrupted her aging process. Despite the fact that only twenty two years old, she was technically younger by at least a couple years being frozen for weeks at a time on several missions, slowing her age and prolonging her lifetime. Getting to and back from missions was only the worst part of a boring job. Now this directive was something no one else wanted to do since no habitable planet ever discovered, but had to keep searching nonetheless. Eve herself, not a group of scouts, would be sent to scout a planet surface once every five years instead of once a year, and they chose Earth, the least expectant of all impossibilities. The home planet long abandoned by her people for almost seven hundred years since the _Axiom_ and other Buy n' Large starships left with the population of humanity.

_So why search an already dead planet?_ Eve thought to herself, as she got antagonized in her search of her next scanning. Even though she's never seen Earth, she didn't think she would. Ever since being born and growing up on the _Axiom_, Eve always dreamed of escaping the cabin feverish walls of the ship, having grown sick and tired of doing the same 'activities' as everyone else onboard that ship. She grew up, educated, and trained with her mindset onto the promises of timeless horizons of space, looking for infinite worlds and skies to fly through, the ultimate freedom. Earth was so dead and pointless. Due to the fact Eve could only go where she was told, it made her think there isn't much freedom in anything. Her prolonged life felt as if to be maroon in routine, no matter where she went.

Her thoughts were interrupted by yet another _Identified: Specimen Negative_, Eve had scanned the inside of a Buy n' Large replica of the Apollo capsule. Soon as she heard that negative chime, she slammed the hatch shut, failing to react not so angrily.

"_Identified: Specimen Negative._"

All through the day she got angrier and angrier by the minute at that sound after hundreds of readings. She finished what she thought would have had productive results was in the cargo hold of an ancient Buy n' Large cargo ship in the late afternoon.

"_Identified: Specimen Negative!_"

_"_Aaaagh!"

Eve slams the cargo doors with all her might, screaming in frustration as she threw her holographic-pad over the railing and down to the dried up bedrock. Her actions only fueled the fire as she stomped away off the ship to go find her holographic-pad and stopped for the day, not noticing a metallic grating sound from behind her.

Before Eve registered a tugging sensation on her, the circular magnetic disk attached to a cargo crane yanked her off her feet and pulled to the disk, whole body immobilized by the powerful magnetic field.

"What the hell?" she exclaims at what happened.

It hits Eve that her suit is of magnetized material, made of nanofabricated ceramic gossamer, made for skintight sporty girl looks and as protective suits in the harsh environments of any extraterrestrial landscape. Thin, comfortably smooth, and its own form of clothing almost indistinguishable from Egyptian cotton. It is still metallic regardless of its characteristic structure.

She tries to budge but to no avail. Still infuriated, she fidgets violently and flings around trying to break free. She activates her antigravity servomechanism, trying to fly away, maybe swing with enough momentum to brake free. She almost makes it, but the magnet is far too strong.

_What idiot puts magnetic crane up for lifting cargo but doesn't take it off?_ she thinks, cursing all sorts of things in her mind.

After a few minutes of trying, Eve finally lost whatever patience she had left. She wrestles her hand for the plasma rifle strapped to her waist. She struggles as she pries it out of its harness, as it is also metallic. Save for she has the barrel aimed at the magnet, set to low power so she doesn't blow herself up. She closes her eyes and pulls the trigger.

The bolt of plasma melts through the magnet, releasing Eve as she stops from falling with her antigravity boots.

Finally free to release all her rage and anger from the day of not finding what she's looking for on the ship, Eve unloads discharge after discharge of ionized gas projectiles, screaming and cursing at the freighter, blasting full power at the hull, superstructure, and especially the crane, twice for good measure. One shot hits the petroleum fuel tanks, instantly the ship lights up in a ball of fire as she continues firing at the disintegrated ship in a blind rage. The raining fireball's debris and her stray plasma blasts causes nearby ships to explode as well. Eve's anger is lighting up the dead valley like Hiroshima.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Wally watches in terror and awe at the sight of the pretty woman turned explosive on those ships, all while trying to avoid flying flaming debris from his cover at a safe distance from the ship and _from her_ in this state. In the week she has been here, he tried to get close as he can to her but hadn't recovered his confidence to get her attention after he built that statue of her and it took him a while to pry himself free from those pipes, he didn't want to go through that again. After seeing the woman full-blown rage, made him scared to consider going over to her.

She's back on the ground after finally stopped shooting, her beautiful face that showed murderous rage now blank from hopelessness. Lost in thought, the woman slumps over in defeat, not taking any notice of the ships she blew up tilting over each other, creating a fiery domino effect. Wally notices she is clenching her fists, hiding her face in her hair, saddened beyond measure, closed up on not finding a single specimen in an entire sector.

Concerned, Wally feels something tug inside himself. He loved her gracious self, but he couldn't stand to see her so depressed. Wally wanted to go over to her and comfort her however way he could. Disturbing her would most likely worsen her god-awful mood and he would risk incineration by her own fury.

It wasn't until then Wally notices a shining blue screen along the burning debris in front of him. He picked it up, recognizing it as the woman's holographic-pad. He saw her throw it almost in the direction of his hiding spot.

"Hmm," Wally looks between the holographic-pad in his hand then to the woman, get an idea that might actually work. He could return this to her and maybe she will at least thank him maybe get an opportunity to talk to her. He would do anything for this girl to say at least a few words to him. He has never even met a girl before. He looks back at the woman and back to the holographic-pad in his hand. He made his decision, he will run the risk of her killing him, but at least he would try to get close to her.

_It's now or forever be a coward, _he thought as he composes himself with all his courage and slowly makes his way over to her side not without feeling a bit of nervousness in his gut.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Eve sat there unresponsively, face buried in her hands, exhausted from spending her anger and energy on the defenseless ship. Her eyes threatened to water, Eve thought for a moment if she could have just put her energy into flying away, feeling free from directives and frustrating as hell readouts. Having already vented her willpower to even move, there wasn't much she could do to ease her pain. She felt for the first time true hatred for her job, cursing the planets she ever visited to having no life and cursed her superiors for selecting her for this meaningless safari. She just wanted to block reality immediately, she won't respond to anything, wanting to go home and away from this hellhole. She wouldn't look forward to returning home either. Wished she could just fly away from this life if she could...

Slow, careful footsteps to Eve's left caught her attention. Her sonic detection automatically registered it as the annoying garbage man that kept following her around. She wanted to blast the irritating little weirdo on the spot, her plasma rifle lie next her, it's barrel still glowing red hot from firing continuously, it's ion power cell fully drained and in need to recharge.

She heard another noise. The garbage collector sat no more than ten feet away from her, nervously shifted closer to her, tapping and fidgeting with his fingers as he whistled out of tune for no reason. Eve didn't bother with him, he seemed rather harmless to her.

Eve thought about the man next to her. The way he kept following her and popping into her thoughts, something about him . . . She nearly killed him the first time they meet, she over-defensively presumed he was hostile, save for his innocent looks and curiosity the only thing present in his eyes. She remembers those eyes. The way he looked at her, he looked like a very lonely man, trailing her like a lost puppy. She also knew nothing could survive here as far as she could tell, she was told all of the Buy N' Large cleanup settlements left on Earth died out long ago in six hundred, ninety five years of reconnaissance, the scouts sent from the _Axiom_ star liner never found a single survivor anywhere. How is it possible for this living, breathing worker to be here on Earth? Could he be the sole survivor of long lost government of this planet?

Maybe he knows . . . even better, maybe he knows where to find what she's looking for, he was the only thing in her search of Sector _NA-001_ she hasn't bothered with yet. She thought of more questions like who was he? Where did he come from? Why is he here? How did he survive this world? Her blossoming curiosity about him snapped her out of her gloomy state.

He was only four feet away, sitting in an awkward position, apparent to her he wanted to speak. Finally! She can do something useful on this meaningless mission and satisfy her inquisitive mind.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

_You can do this,_ Wally repeats to himself, trying to overcome the growing nervousness in his stomach.

He is over a meter away from her, she probably knows he's there and hasn't had the ability to kill him for the time being. He is neither relieved nor panicked, still sitting next to her in awkward silence and the only sounds are the cracklings of fire from the burning hulks of the ships in front of them. He collects his composure, clearing his throat, ready to speak. He forgot what he was going to say, but he's going to say at least _something_ to her.

"So what's your story?" the woman said, turning her head to face him.

"Ah!" He jumped at the sound of her speaking and looking at him so suddenly, he fell over on his back in surprise and closed his eyes preparing to be blown away.

The woman calmly tried to reach out to Wally.

"It's alright, it's alright. I'm not going to hurt you."

Wally had not expected that to happen. Wally realizes he was on his back and not dead. Wally sat up from the ground slowly and found himself in direct eye contact with the woman for the first time since she arrived. Only this time, Wally wasn't staring down the barrel of a plasma gun nor into the eyes of a trained killer. He glanced at a sincere woman with no intention to harm him at all. She looked at him awaiting an answer, her crystal clear blue eyes continued to stun him.

"You're very jittery aren't you?" Her voice is soothing and friendly, for she seemed amused by his anxiety at the slightest of her actions. It finally hits him.

_She's talking to me!_

"What's your directive?" she asks.

Still nervous, he tries to say something.

"Uuuh...Huh?" was his only intelligible response.

"You're a garbage collector, yes?" she asks him again with her sweet voice.

"Oh!" he realizes what she was saying.

"Um…uh…y-yes, yes I-I am," he stutters but not as nervous about her. Wally's voice sounded rough, he hasn't used it for a full sentence in a very long time. Wally notices a pile of trash nearby, maybe he could impress her. He eagerly whips out his shovel and proudly scoops it all into a broken compactor nearby as swiftly as he could. The compactor grinds painfully as the rusted away gears try to compress the trash. Finally it spits out a cube, only for it to fall apart.

"Uuh….Tada!" he nervously triumphs over the sloppy cube.

"Oh." Eve looks at the fallen apart cube in mild amazement as if she never saw the act of compacting garbage before.

"What's your də**·**'rek-" Wally tries to speak, knowing the ice is somewhat broken.

"My directive?" the woman points to herself to which Wally nods.

"That's classified," she coldly says looking away, neither short nor cutting in her answer.

"Oh…sorry," he replies in defeat, mentally cursing himself asking that question.

Suddenly he remembered the holographic-pad she threw away. Wally quickly pulls it out of his pocket and hands it to her.

Eve looks at her holographic-pad in his hand, remembered chucking it over the railing because it drove her to madness, destroying a boat for not finding what she was after. She hates having to do that again or be reminded of it but he didn't know better. She takes it from his gloved hand, and examines it, it wasn't damaged and it's built tough for a frustrating job. At least she won't have to go look for it or replace it.

"Oh, thank you, um-uh, what's your name?" she asks him.

"My name?" he repeats.

"Yes," she looks at him for an answer.

He's never said his given name before or for as long as he could remember, speaking to anything or anyone in particular to share his name. He remembered it, it's even written on his uniform for that matter but hasn't said it for almost…forever. It's hard for him to say it.

"Uuuh…uhh." It's _really_ hard for him to say it.

"W…WAH," he takes his time.

"WAH…WAH**·**WAHL**·**ee!" he finally manages to speak it.

"Wally?" the woman repeats it perfectly, with her harmonious voice.

Wally's heart went warm the way she spoke his name. He cues at the beautiful sound of her voice that rolls off her tongue as she says it again.

"Wally," she giggles lightly.

"That's a nice name," she smiles at him. He gazes lovingly at her.

"My name is Eve," she replies, pointing to her name patched on her arm under a single gold bar for the rank of second lieutenant and a green plant patch with Buy n' Large Navy - _Axiom_ _E.V.R.E., _an anagram for Extraterrestrial Vegetation Reconnaissance & Evaluation embedded in it.

Her name is the most wonderful word Wally has ever heard. He tries to pronounce it but he isn't very good with phonetics either.

He tries again.

"Eeeaah," he fails once more.

"No it's like this: Eeeeevveee," she says her name slower.

Wally put all his efforts into pronouncing it right, only to worsen his speech impediment.

That slow stuttering sound made Eve giggles uncontrollably, he's trying so hard to get it right and his pronouncing of her name with an "a" sounded too cute. It made him look so adorable!

Wally is entranced at the sound of her laugh, her voice like music to his ears. He loved making her laugh so he says her name again.

She collects herself after a few seconds.

"You're funny. It's Eve, but that sounds good to me," she says with a smile on her face, making him more drawn to her, now he's up close, personal and on friendly ground with the first human being he has spoken to in known memory.

The wind begins growing, the atmosphere around them getting cold and the howling sounds drawing Wally's attention away from Eve. The sand at their feat blowing with the wind, he recognizes that sound. The winds are blowing from behind Eve. He looks past her, and sure enough, a column of dust and sand headed their way fast.

"Oh no," he says half-panicking, his truck about a kilometer away and judging from the wind's speed and distance of the wall of sand, they had less than a minute before it hits.

"Eva! We need to go!" Alerted, he moves to grab her and run.

"Whoa, don't touch me!" Eve warns, drawing her plasma rifle on him. Wally stops dead in his tracks but she doesn't know what's happening.

"Eva look! There's a storm coming!"

Before she could turn around, the winds hit full force, leaving Eve dumbstruck of what happened. The sand now picking up and obscuring her vision, even her HUD is unable to shield her face. The gale force winds have even extinguished the fires of the burning ships. Eve is now totally disoriented in the blast of air and dirt all around her, difficult to not get blown over. Suddenly she remembers Wally standing near her, only to disappear in the cloud of dust as the storm hit.

"WALLY! WALLY! WHERE ARE YOU?" she calls out to him, no response. It's so loud and visibility is zero. She panics, she can't find any shelter, and the only person who knows what to do is gone and she won't survive in this for long.

Suddenly she feels safe as a rough, gloved hand grasps her own for dear life. Eve may not see Wally but knows he's there.

"EVA!" Wally screams to her over the blasting winds, he's still there, and she's going to live. His silhouette form appears in the cloud of dust.

"DON'T LET GO! FOLLOW ME!" Wally calls out to her, placing his ultraviolet goggles on his face, guiding both to the only secured place.


	9. One's trash is another's treasure

**DISCLAIMER **

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_.

* * *

The sudden rush of sand and wind blasting inside shatters the dead silence of the truck's dark interior. The door opens as fast as it could.

"IN HERE!"

Wally leads Eve inside, shielding her with his body. It was difficult to find the truck but thankfully, Wally remembered his bearings before the storm hit. Walking in one hundred, fifty kilometer-per-hour winds was slow as a crawl, any further than a kilometer away, they'd be dead and buried for sure.

The door closes and all is calm again. They are safe. The settling dust causes Eve to sneeze and cough up sand in her mouth.

"Are you alright?" Wally asks, worried. Even though he's used to the harsh air, she wasn't.

"Yea-" a sneeze escapes her.

"-yes, thank you." she manages to say, little shaken.

She notices it's dark inside the truck.

"Where are we?" she asks, unable to see, even Wally.

"Hold on, let me get some light." He scuffles through the darkness, managing to reach the stack of batteries to the Christmas lights. He clamps in the cables and the truck flickers to life with every color of light.

Eve is amazed at the sight, the most stuffed space of random ancient objects she's ever seen. Racks upon racks of unique appliances, tools, toys, items, oddities, knickknacks, anything. The Christmas lights gave the interior of the stuffed truck a glow of invitation and enchantment. She slowly glides down the aisle of the truck, completely awestruck.

"This is my home," he proudly says as he spreads his arms out to give a welcoming pose. Eve notices Wally's make shift room, a sheet tied to metal poles, the broken down TV still playing and Hal's sleeping pad. She takes in the entire image of the trucks interior.

"Is this, your…living quarters?" Eve asks, carefully choosing her words.

She looks at him for a second, wondering how could a person live in such a humble place and survive the hostile conditions of Earth. Compared to the living standards of her home on the _Axiom_, this 'home' is utterly nothing.

She changes the subject, trying not to think of low his life is compared to hers. Instead, she quelled her curiosity of the truck's treasures.

"So...where did you get all of these things?"

"I found all of these in the garbage and collected them." The way he displays the forgotten treasures of humanity, seems like it's the whole world in here.

"It's incredible," she says, scrutinizing every one of them but jumps at the sound of what appears to be a singing fish on the wall.

"WHOA!" She draws her gun as if to shoot it.

Wally rushes to her alerted. He doesn't want any of his treasures destroyed.

"Eva, Eva, it's alright, it's just a fish."

She isn't listening now that the singing fish is also moving! Its tail and head flapping side to side, she takes aim

"Ah! Eva! No, no, no. It's ok, it's ok. It's not going to hurt you," he calmly reassures her, trying to get her to lower her weapon. She looks at him and back towards the fish in nervousness but gives in as she holsters her plasma rifle.

"Oh, good," Wally sighs in relief as he becomes all jittery and excited.

"There's so much I want to show you!" he says a smile on his face, riffling through the racks to find interesting things to share.

"Here," he shows her an eggbeater, but since this technology is hundreds of years old, neither of them have a clue what it is.

Eve takes it as Wally goes searching for more things. She gets very curious with the eggbeater, twisting its knob faster, faster, faster, and fast—the beaters fly off, she revved it too fast. She gasps sharply as one of his treasures came apart.

Wally heard the clanking sounds.

"What was that?"

"Um, uh, nothing. Nothing at all," she quickly prevaricated, hiding the eggbeater.

Wally finds a sheet of pliable, transparent plastic material with regularly spaced, protruding air-filled hemispheres.

"Lookie here!" he pops one of the bubbles. She is taken aback, it looks fun and addicting.

"You try," he happily offers it to her which she takes it and sure enough likes it when she popped a bubble. She giggles as she popped all the bubbles as fast as she could.

Wally hands her a glass bulb connected to a screw pitched base, she takes it and as soon as it touched her fingers, it shone brightly.

"What the?" Wally takes the light from her, tapping it if broken before handing it back to Eve, maybe he imagined things. Nope, it lit up again.

"How'd you do that?" he asks amazed she could bring light to anything dead.

"I don't know," she replies, drawn to the light as well. Apparently, her suit's nano-circuitry could transfer energy to anything electrical it touches.

Wally shrugs it off as he finds an unsolved Rubik's cube that she takes with utmost curiosity.

"Aha, I know!" he says, knowing something to interest her.

Ecstatic, he rushes over to the VCR, pulls out Hello Dolly and rushes back to Eve, who finished solving the Rubik's cube in the three seconds he took to get the movie.

"Oh," he utters in amazement, she's smart and she's fast. He looks at the cube, unconsciously handing Eve the tape and stares at the cube. Doesn't even know what it was for.

"Oops," Eve's words brought Wally's attention back to her. He saw Eve's worried expression looking at the unspooled contents from a cassette in her hands.

"Ah! My tape!" he panics, grabbing it from her, trying to think of how to fix it.

"Oh my, I-I'm so sorry!" Eve tries apologizing, worried she did something very wrong. Quickly and clumsily, Wally's mechanical arm exposes a kind of flathead power tool that rewinds the tape, but he is still worried, does it still work? He whips around and slides it into the VCR, turning on the TV. The static made him feel uneasy for his most prized possession.

Finally the screen flickers on, the picture displays and sound activates. Wally cheers in relief to the tunes being played, the scene of the actors dancing to '_Put On Your Sunday Clothes_.'

Eve stands next to Wally, relieved that the problem she made was solved. She stares at the TV and to him.

"It's looks fascinating," she watches the scene and listens to the movie with great interest. She records the scenes of the actors dancing with her tiny camcorder, mounted on her earpiece.

"Very fascinating," she says to herself as she steps closer, examining the movie like a scientist examining a specimen.

"Oh I know!" Wally jumps in excitement as he reaches the back of his truck, searching for something he found earlier: the metal lid. He finds it just where he left it and turns to Eve.

She is greeted to an adorable sight of him dancing and humming along the tunes, with a trash lid as a hat, how appropriate.

_"...Put on your Sunday clothes there's lots of world out there…!"_

He dances poorly if for the first time but Eve can't contain herself as she giggles loudly. He's just too cute for her when he does that.

"Now you try," he politely asks, spinning to a stop from his last move.

Eve is baffled, she's never danced before either except for in the sky but she tries anyway.

"Okay," thinking it to be challenging, she uses her enhanced abilities for her movements.

Too much speed and strength combined. Wally tries to stay calm and polite, stepping back from her frantic dancing form. She mimics his last dance move, spinning like helicopter propellers.

"Okay stop, stop! STO-" She strikes him in the face and sends him flying into the metal wall.

Eve stops gracefully, not fazed or dizzy at all. She notices Wally isn't present, how can he disappear in a truck?

"Wally?" she asks in confusion.

She looks on the ground and against the wall where Wally groaned from the impact of such force, like being hit by a car and putting a sizable dent in the aluminum wall.

"Oh my, I'm so sorry!" Eve gasps.

"I got carried away, are you okay?"

He seemed unharmed but his glasses are shattered and he sustained a black eye. Concerned, Eve tries to help him up.

"I can fix that for you."

"Oh no, no, no, no, I-I am okay. I have spares," he says, getting up but trips over some of his stuff on the floor. He's really nearsighted without his glasses.

"Are you sure you don't need help?" Eve asks him, Wally was feeling the shelves, but kept tripping and bumping his head into things.

"Oh yes I am okay, I know wher-" CLANK!

"OW!" Wally hits his head against the top shelf but manages to finish his sentence.

"I know where to find my glasses." Wally finds his way to the shelf of personal items of new glasses, replacement prosthesis, pacemaker batteries and so forth.

"Aha! Problem solved," he says triumphantly of having on a new pair.

"Oh, good," Eve is relieved she didn't seriously injured him. Wally was taken aback that Eve is now more caring to him. She focuses her eyes around to find something new.

Eve finds Wally's lighter collection, something new to her indeed. She picks one up, carefully studying its appearance, wasn't it used for something?

"I have no idea what those are," Wally said as Eve sat down not too far from him.

"I just collected all of the ones I could find though."

She pulls on one side and it clicks open. Curiously, she presses a button, the lighter sparks, Wally and Eve are captivated by a tiny little flame that appears.

As they stare into the flame, Wally could feel the warmth emitting from Eve's skin. He realizes this is the closest he has been to her. He looks at her, still oblivious to their intimate position, staring at the flame.

Wally took in the image of Eve, the light emitting from the Christmas lights and from the tiny flame glowing on her pure white figure but saw the warmer glow of her beautiful face, his infatuation for her grew. He tilted his head to one side, his mind lost in the magnificence of her vivid blue eyes, staring into them as if into her soul. So beautiful it almost hurt to look. He hears familiar tunes playing in the background, the soft ballad of '_It Only Takes A Moment_' made it felt he was staring at the night sky that day before she arrived, its timeless dark blue horizon twinkled of constellations so mystifying and captivating, that beheld the most mysterious things of life beyond mortal grasp. Wally felt Eve was a godsend from the stars, his silent prayer for finding love now right in front of him.

He remembered the song playing in the background, the man and woman kissing and holding hands, proclaiming their love for one another only took a moment to fall into. Wally finally understood what the lyrics meant and he knew what to do.

His eyes lowered down from her eyes, down her arm and to her fingerless gloved left hand. It laid limp on the sheet they were sitting on, mere centimeters from his prosthetic right hand. Wally gulped. It seemed so simple in the movie to just hold the woman's hand, telling her everything you wanted to tell.

_But what if she rejects me? Worse, decides to shoot me?_ Easier said than done, Wally tried to build up courage within himself to make his move, sweating. They were still in awkward silence, Eve still distracted by the flame. Overall, the intimate situation and setting, he decides to take her hand immediately.

He slowly raises his right hand, even though it was mechanical, the timid shakiness was running throughout Wally's entire body. It made faint clattering sounds as his prosthetic's neural processor registered spiking stimulus patterns of stress in his brain, enacting the proper effects of anxiety like the shakes. He mentally cursed his replacement arm for having such a give away to his shyness, it wasn't that far to her hand, but mere centimeters felt like kilometers.

He opens his fingers.

_Ok, that's a good first step,_ he reaches down…slowly.

He closed his eyes, preparing for the worst . . . if he is rejected and she decides to blast him to bit on the spot.

He hoped for the best that she somehow loved him back. He pictures in his mind of them being locked in a passionate embrace, singing to the orchestra of '_It Only Takes A Moment_' and the happiest of endings, his dream come true. The thought finally brings out the bravery in him to touch the skin of her fingers…

Eve turns her head to Wally, eyeing him questioningly and suspiciously when she sees him reach for her hand with his eyes closed.

"What are you doing?"

He pulls his hand back in reflex, half-choking/yelping, thinking he was caught or he touched her hand and was about to die.

"Ah! Oh um-uuuuh, uuh, n-n-n-nothing, noth-thing at all! Yeah that's it! Doing nothing at all!" he denies half stuttering out of impulse and fear, his confidence and fantasies shattered into a trillion pieces. He sheepishly fidgeting as if trying to convince her he was doing something akin to nothing.

Eve looks at him as if he's the most bizarre creature she's ever seen, and sadly she has no idea what Wally tried to relay to her.

"Uuuh Oooo-kay," she says to him in unease, wondering what he was up to.

"Oooh!" Eve is drawn to the TV where '_It Only Takes_ _A Moment_' played, preventing her from pondering about Wally's strange behavior.

Wally mentally kicked himself for cowering from his only chance to connect with Eve. He noticed Eve was very interested in the movie as well. He sat there in thought trying to come up with something to reel her to him. She was interested in the things he showed her, so what hasn't he shown her yet? He's shown her pretty much everything of his life on Earth in just minutes, there wasn't much lively to look at.

_Wait, lively! THAT'S IT! THE PLANT!_ Suddenly remembering the garden plant he found earlier, the only thing she hasn't seen and it's something he's never seen before either.

"Eva! I just remembered!" Eve draws her attention from scanning the scene on the TV.

"I found something a few days ago and I want to show you!"

He rushes over to the shelves but since the whole truck had something in every one of the hundreds of shelves, he can't remember exactly where it was.

"Uh, one second," he says as he frantically continues searching through the shelves. He's causing such a racket that a drum came down on his head.

"Ow!" looking up in the direction of where the drum fell, he fumbles back on the drum as he loses his balance.

Eve silently giggles at him as he goofily searched around his home. He is, indeed, adorably funny in her eyes, very cute even. Especially for someone like him who survived here. Eve looks at the lighter in her hand and back at the closing scene of '_It Only Takes_ _A Moment_.'

She thinks of how someone like him could see something so special in things her people once greedily took for granted or if it were a dumb invention. To Wally, he saw things far more than they were, in all his treasures. There was something about Wally that made her more curious and drawn to him, wondering if the things she felt were of what, attraction? How? He is far below her in status, not to mention he does not have much of an attractive male in physical appearance according to female terms.

She is a naval vegetation scout for the Buy n' Large interstellar fleet and he is a custodian for a government that no longer exists. How could such unlikely people create such a connection among them?

Eve flicks the lighter on again, the tiny flame flickering to life. The tiny flame reminded her of the things she remembered as beautiful. The warmth of being loved or loving someone, like the way her parents cared for her when she was young and the way her parents cared for each other. Then she remembered the beauty of the stars as seen from the _Axiom_. She loved them as much as her loved to fly, the greatest things that brought her warmth but didn't know why. It wasn't just for the sense of freedom for freedom is a perspective. What she loved is it's just cause, because she wanted to. She compared it to a possibility she thought of if she and him were somehow connected

_Could they be attracted if they wanted to?_ she thought. Maybe there was more to it than just social or status common ground. The way he looked at her, at the times she caught him staring at her like the greatest thing ever.

_Maybe, he sees something in me that no one else could. But what exactly?_

Wally tapped her shoulder, breaking her train of thought.

She turns around to see him standing before her holding an old shoe with something green inside the shoe that got her attention.

"Oh!" she exclaimed with great interest. She looks at the green object in scrutiny.

_Wait a minute!_ her practiced eyes realize the familiar green looking object.

She pulls out her holographic pad and scans the object. Three pings and then, a pause as it processed what it was looking at.

"_Identified: Specimen POSITIVE - Ailanthus altissimo sprout - Biologically functioning_."

It pinged with a confirming sound. Eve's eyes shot wide open. Her mind can't process what she is looking at, a real photosynthesizing plant!

"_Specimen Confirmed Positive, Directive A1-01: Recon & Evaluate Positive Biological Lifeforms - Accomplished, Initiate - Directive A1-02: Return To Axiom Superior!_"

At that moment, her mind truly couldn't process because it was taken over by an automated program. Her neural implants possessing her mind and body.

She starts to convulse violently, an inhuman automated sound coming from Eve. Wally is caught by surprise and fear, he steps back scared as if she's going to blow up. In his mind he is scared beyond measure for her.

_WHAT DID I DO?_ He panics in his mind but now his feet locked in fear of what's going to happen next.

It happened instantly. A brainwashed Eve yanks the plant out of Wally's hands and places it in the special biological specimen container strapped to her belt before yanking out her downsized cryogenic pod cylinder. It automatically sizes up around her in the event these things happen and cryogenic ice suddenly encases Eve. The cryogenic pod's seams seal shut with a solid click, never to open for anything or anyone. It drops to the ground with a thud.

Only a steady pulsating green light with a leaf planted over it emits from the pod.

"Whoa," was Wally's only reaction to what happened.

He steps over to the pod and sees Eve in suspended animation inside, frozen in her blank, catatonic pose, her eyes closed and her hand clutching the plant container for dear life. She looked clinically dead in the pod, just like when she first came here.

"Evah?"

He taps the pod as if to somehow get her attention. No response. He leans against the pod tohear for any signs of activity within it. Besides the pulsating green light, nothing.

"Eva?" he panics, shaking the pod to awaken her. Nothing happens.

"E-E-EVA!" His cries for the now frozen and unresponsive Eve echoed through the truck, through the storm and through the night as he tries getting an answer.


	10. Rain Drops Keep Fallin

**DISCLAIMER **

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_.

* * *

Come morning, twilight creeping over the eastern horizon, the sandstorm has calmed down overnight but Wally hasn't. Since Eve put herself into hibernation, he was wide awake and worried sick, thinking she was hurt or he did something wrong, making her shut herself off from him. Since then he tried to arouse her to no avail. Wally still tries, not willing to give up on his only friend despite the fact Eve was chronically frozen in place and clinically dead, unresponsive to Wally's cries.

He sat there staring at her pod in the truck for hours after countless attempts of pounding on it to awake her. He kept thinking of how to get her out, to bring her out of the freezing shell and back to life. But how? He did not know…

"Aha!" He shall try to unfreeze her!

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

With the sun now above the horizon, Wally moved, or better yet, labored Eve's cryogenic tube outside, to where he would get his pacemaker recharged at the same time. Her pod was, not bulky, but very heavy around three hundred fifty pounds because the density of the great cytogenetic residual ice inside the pod combined with the density of Eve's frozen solid body. It took him an hour or two of pushing the pod out of the truck, down the ramp and into the sunlight. Manual laboring didn't help Wally take his mind off Eve but he at least got her in the sun's warm rays in the expectation for her to awake.

All he could do was wait and see if the sun could melt through the pod's -100̊° C chassis. He stood by her side on the bridge, staring at the frozen figure of Eve, waiting for the ice to thaw out and let her go, so he could see her warm open eyes and hear her voice again.

He lets those happy results run through his head as he waits patiently….

…And waits… …and waits… …and waits…

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

By now, the heat of midday's sun beats down on the surface as hot as it will irradiate. It's almost unbearable, even for Wally. Though he grew up here, it's the hottest summer on Earth he's ever experienced. He sat down on the sizzling concrete of the broken bridge. His work suit and skin soaked with sweat and his mouth crisp dry from dehydration. Wally doesn't care for he's more concerned for Eve waking up any moment now, the same thought that's been running through him for the past few hours.

He looks back up at the pod where the frozen Eve laid since this morning. Outside air temperatures have hit 50˚C or 122̊°F and not a single drop of condensation dripped from her pod. Wally drops his head down in disappointment, nothing, after hours of waiting, has happened.

_Patience__,_ he told himself, reassured she would eventually thaw.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

It's almost sundown, Wally only slightly bored and Eve is where she was at, motionlessly frozen in her pod where he put it, its green light still pulsating. He fiddles around with his tools on the still sizzling ground, wondering if he could work his way through the pod to release her. As he sorts through what he could use, he hears rumbling sounds in the distance.

He looks up to see darkness spread across the horizon. It wasn't a sandstorm, for the winds did not kick up dust. These columns of clouds were all dark grey and towered high in the sky. Flashes of light could be seen in the blackness, it's where the soft earthshaking sounds are coming from.

"Uh oh," he realizes it's a thunderstorm.

It seems it will be over them by nightfall, which is not long. Though they are not as powerful or deadly as a thunderstorm, it is still serious to find shelter because of flooding and lightning. He has witnessed some of his comrades suffer those fates, nowhere to hide from Mother Nature and died in the rain.

Wally had no idea how durable Eve's pod against the weather but just because it's hi-tech doesn't mean it can last out here. He won't have time to move Eve back into the truck. Her pod too heavy to move and because of the slope of the ramp, it might fall on him if he tries to move it up. Worse, he might hurt Eve inside it.

Wally remembers he has a single ancient canopy that designed to protect against rain or sunlight in the truck.

Considering the situation, he could use it to protect Eve himself. It's very rare for a thunderstorm to pass by these times, mostly in dry heat or the cold. Wally has forgotten what it felt like for rain to pour on his skin and he never bathed as much as he could remembered, there was not enough clean water to do so if there were any. The rain could be good since he was out in the heat all day. He felt like he could use a small bathing in the rain…

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Later that night, Wally's sleep-deprived eyes shot wide open in total shock as another lightning bolt stuck and missed him by a few meters, frying the ground it touched. The ungodly sound of electricity crashing down is painfully deafening to his ears. It's the tenth time in the night he was almost electrocuted, but he kept his spot next to Eve's pod, holding an umbrella over it as he stood out in the downpour.

The rain came down hard in every direction because of wind. Wally doesn't mind shivering in the frozen rain, being drenched right through his suit from head to toe. Although he does regret he underestimated the terrible conditions of the storm, he'd give his other arm for some heat. The temperature dropped rapidly and had only then realized he had to stay awake and hold an umbrella over Eve's pod until the rain stopped, his arms outstretched for holding it all night. Wally didn't know how to find a way to get it back into the truck or to a safer place.

All he knows is that it will be dawn in a couple of hours and the storm will be hopefully gone by then.

Just as he finished that though, the eleventh near-miss lightning bolt struck the streetlight next to him, screaming and jumping in surprise.

_IF we make it to dawn,_ thought Wally as he looked in terror at the molten metal of the struck light post.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

The rain had passed but the cold has not a few hours later.

A dark overcast hung over Sector _NA-001_, preventing sunlight from warming the surface that morning, it's now below freezing.

_Why of all times of the year for weather on this planet to go from extreme to extreme? _Wally wondered to himself, shivering in the freezing air.

Since the Earth's protective atmosphere long been chemically tainted and eaten away, the climates have become volatile to temperature changes from very hot to very cold if there was sunlight or not over non-clouded or darkened regions of Earth.

It's getting way too cold now. Wally's teeth are sore from uncontrollable shivering, suit wet from the downpour but he has no other forms of clothing to change into or dry off in. Standing out in the windy open air, the wet uniform stung his skin like needles, adding more misery on top of sleep deprivation, shell shock and a common cold he got in the storm. He was thankfully astonished he made it through thirty-three lightning bolts that came within a few feet of him, almost frying him on the spot and he hasn't succumbed to hypothermia from freezing rain.

Wally looks at the source of his misery and his endurance, the hibernating form of Eve. She was all right, far as he could tell. No water droplets or electric bolts have touched her pod. He stood by her side all night, with an umbrella in his biologic hand because of the lightning. Besides the annotation of his mechanical arm is a huge metallic attraction for electricity, Wally wonders why he hasn't succumbed to exhaustion from keeping his prosthetic arm for hours holding an umbrella.

Her pod hadn't changed since she went into slumber, no more or no less frozen.

_But must be kept safe regardless, _he thought to himself_._

He went back into the truck and came back out with his blanket.

Sure Eve is cryogenically frozen but Wally couldn't be sure. Her pod hollow and not very thick, she probably felt what happened outside hence cryogenic pod was to preserve her from aging, not from external harm.

Wally drapes the blanket around her pod, shielding her from the dropping temperature. As he ties up the blanket around her, he imagined what it would be like to embrace her if she wasn't frozen, to shield her from the cold and feel the warm of her presence in his arms, protecting and letting Eve know how much he really cares for her.

Oh did he want her so bad.

He finishes tying up the blanket ends, satisfied he is willing to look after her well-being. The rush of the wind against his damp suit reminded him of his own, shivering again. He doesn't have anything else to spare to keep himself warm but even if he did, he would be more than content to give it to Eve.

She was safe and it was all that mattered to him.

He stares at Eve as he sits in front of her pod, curled up on the ground, holding his firmly woven cotton of his hammock around his torso with his arms trying not to freeze. He imagined Eve holding him and not himself to stay warm. He will stay there until she wakes up, no matter how long it took until then, he turns to his only sources of warmth: his bundled up hammock wrapped around his body facing away from the wind and Eve in his thoughts.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

The winds kicked up the following day. A sandstorm is coming by nightfall. He had anticipated a storm would happen but won't be able to move Eve's pod in time. He has to find a way to protect her and survive from a storm out in the open.

All he could do was cover her pod with anything to protect her from the sand, she still had his blanket so he added a trash can over the top, container boxes concealing the sides and he weighed everything down to be sure she was anchored. He just used the fabric of his hammock to cover himself up since he can't fit in the shelter he made for her.

He stayed out there to be sure she wasn't blown away or hit by flying debris.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Seventeen hours of watching through the darkened clouds of sand and powerful gusts later, the sandstorm ended.

Sand covered the bridge and the winds seemed to have been blowing hard still but the dust has settled.

Something stirs in one of the dunes of sand. Wally digs himself out, getting much sand out of his hair and off his suit. Wally is completely unfazed by the idea of surviving premature burial as he has done that for hundreds of times, unlike his brothers. Wally immediately checks up on the most important thing.

He digs out the trash can/boxed up cocoon out of the sand and there she was, right where he left her from the storm. Wally seems satisfied when no sand seeped into the makeshift shelter. Despite having sand in his eyes, mouth, hair, and suit, Eve is still safe.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

A few days later, Wally still anticipates for Eve to wake, his patience however is being put to the test. Wally thought about it very hard but has come up with another way to help Eve wake up by try to unfreeze her himself. Remembering she froze when the pod encased her, he will have to reverse what it did by deactivating the pod. Though he knew absolutely nothing about the inner workings of a cryogenic pod, he is willing to give it his best shot. He examines Eve's pod for any access point.

The pod's surface is a flawless transparent metallic cylinder with no power source, internal lines, systems, or controls, just a symmetrically designed tube. Wally had to admit it's very interesting technology, but he mentally cursed it for keeping him from Eve.

All there is to access the pod is the pulsating beacon, the outlines of an opening can be seen, and it'll have to do.

Wally grabs a crowbar and pries it open.

Inside is a battery cell, a circular disc with a green light flashing on and off for the beacon, there are frosted dry ice lines linked with it, it had to be the pod's cryogenic supply keeping Eve frozen in place. He pulls out his pacemaker's charge cable from his belt. His best chance would be to short-circuit the pod.

He links the cable to his artificial pacemaker. Its alternator unit should provide enough charge to deactivate the device. Before he continues on, he contemplates his thoughts for a moment, thinking of finally getting to awaken Eve.

He thinks what to say to her, how she will react. Will she chew him out for awakening her? Will she kill him? On the other hand, will she embrace him for saving her from being frozen for no reason? The last thought caught his attention, maybe she was unintentionally frozen and unfreezing her seemed like having being so grateful and she will thank him with hugs and kisses, happily ever after. That warmed Wally's mind, giving him the motivation to go ahead and see what happens…

ZAP!

Wally is instantaneously confused. He was on the ground a few yards away. His entire body especially his chest jerked, stinging like hell and smelled of smoke.

_What the hell just happened?_

He looked up. His questions answered along with his idea and fantasies backfiring. The pod's automated defenses knocked Wally off his feet by electrocuting him. A few thousand volts being too much to overpower his pacemaker, it's a wonder it wasn't fried, otherwise his heart wouldn't beat properly and die of both cardiac arrest and electric shock.

_Let's not do that again._ He sighs in relief and slight disappointment.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Later that afternoon, the sounds of creaking wheels fill the streets of the polluted city as a figure tugs on a cylindrical object.

Wally pulls Eve's pod, standing vertically on an ancient red wagon. It's wrapped up in Christmas lights, all shining but not plugged into any power source.

Wally decided on one last way of somehow getting Eve or her pod to let her awake by persuasion. After some serious thinking, while remembering scenes from Hello Dolly, Wally learned the man takes the woman on a special social engagement, which involved taking the woman out to certain places in the city activities when he wishes to convey his romantic emotions to the woman.

_What are those called again?_ he wondered_. _

_A deep? Dent? Dat? D-Date? Yeah that's it, a date!_ He decided to take Eve out on a date to wake her up and let her know how he feels about her! It'll be a challenge since she's still in her pod but it's good that he's too determined.

Took a while for Wally to figure out how to pull it off but he managed on sliding her pod onto a wagon from a ramp he made. After an hour or two of laboring, she was on the wagon, the wagon buckling while trying to support the pod's weight.

Wally also remembered it being customary for the man to express the woman how they felt around each other by certain things they held important or at least to one of them. He draped some Christmas lights over her pod, shining as soon as they touched. He wanted to show her she brought light to long dead objects like the light bulb she lit up with her touch. All the colors imaginable on her beautiful form best fitted on how he wanted to express her in his mind.

Then he went about treating Eve for a date, following the way the movie showed him, almost exactly to the lines the man used and the activities they done.

From a nice brisk walk down the streets to rowing down the sludge river after without laboring her pod into a raft, to an improvised fancy dinner with a picnic blanket he found, draped atop a crate with the lighters used as candles. He even had his canned survival food prepped from his truck. Earlier he worried she might starve in her pod so he kept offering most of his survival provisions to her, setting canned food and water in front of her, probably to draw her out of hunger. However that effort also failed, though she can't eat when she's frozen and perfectly preserved, he just goes along with it, eating sparingly and speaking politely, awaiting eagerly for her to wake up any second.

After a rather one-sided and uneventful dinner, Wally carries Eve to the final place for the date. If he remembered correctly, it was also the most crucial and romantic to any male-female outing: the sunset.

Wally finished engraving WALLY+EVE onto the side of a trash can with his laser, he and the frozen Eve sitting side by side on a secluded bench overlooking the dried up valley of the Hudson Bay. Through the polluted atmosphere, it's a beautiful sunset created by the chemicals in the air alter the color spectrum of light in the sky. With rays of purple, crimson red and orange shining through clouds and smog on the horizon, bathing Wally and Eve in a warm and intimate light.

"Aw," Wally cues at the sight of

Throughout the years, he's never seen the sunset in this whole new light before. He regarded it as an indication of the end of a work day, a relaxing reminder but knowing it'll be the same thing the next day, another day of meaningless labor. Now, with Eve in his life, and learning about love, the sunset really reflects everything he has been longing forever since he watched '_It Only Takes A Moment_.' Something very safe, precious, everything he could want or need and giving him light for the events of his life to him in order for her to exist and for him to meet her, maybe, if possibly, sharing a future with her.

He looks to Eve on his left, the most wonderful source of warmth and love in the universe, more than he ever dreamed of was right next to him but felt unreachable all because of the cursed cryogenic abomination that encased her from him.

Placing his left hand on the pod, over where her right hand is. It was the closest he'd get to hold her hand, that magical gesture could instantly fill the void of his lonely heart. It could tell each other everything they needed to know about love, a simple way for him to feel where his life belonged. He looks into the closed eyes of Eve. Silently begging her at least let him know that she can hear what he wants to tell her so badly.

"I love you." Though frozen, he breathlessly pours his heart out to her stasis form, his puppy dog eyes reflecting the longing he felt.

_If only she were awake…_

Wally's left hand stings badly. He is snapped out of his thoughts when he learned he can't pull his hand off her pod.

"AAAAHHG!" he screams as razor-sharp pain stings his palm.

He forgot to put on his glove whenever he moved the pod around. Now his bare skin was frozen to the surface of -100˚C cryogenic frost.

He tries harder.

"Ah!" his hand hurt and stung even more. It was stuck to the frost on the pod's surface.

He gives a hard tug, still nothing but pain.

The pain is so bad, tears formed up in his eyes and he drops to the ground, clasping his hand. He nearly loses his dinner at the site of bloody tissue layer in his hand and the bloody handprint of skin on Eve's pod.

He gives it one harder tug. Some of his hand's skin peels off as his hand comes free.

He misses the sun disappearing below the horizon as he passed out from pain.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Nighttime has fallen later that evening on the sector, it's a very peaceful one too with light winds, and a cool air outside as soothing a polluted place could ever get.

Outside of Wally's truck, he has set up the old TV screen and Eve's pod so they could enjoy the night and the rest of their "date." He's playing a match of Pong on the TV, the broken down game console still works after all these years. The score is: Wally=8000 and Eve=0. Though she is frozen, he just put another controller in front of Eve to make it seem she was at least there, just not participating in the match. Wally flows with it, only anticipating her revival.

His mind nags him about getting back to work tomorrow and it's getting late for a strange reason, but it's a routine that's been imprinted into him . . . _must complete your directive._

He won't give up on Eve, for he can still…

Wally tries thinking of another alternative to get her out but he has done everything from waiting, jumpstarting, short-circuiting and courtship, only to realize the date was the best idea. He has run fresh out of ideas.

Nothing worked but like in Hello Dolly, the characters always brought out their emotions on a date. He reassured himself the film was the universal method of how dates turn out guaranteed. He thinks about the evening, how things went. Wally followed every scene to the way the date goes and on his part, was exactly what happened in the movie, he thought, it should work. Right?

He glances over to Eve one last time to see if any of his outing's efforts worked.

Nothing just her beacon humming.

He slumps to the ground, sighing in defeat, finally gives up.

"All for nothing..." he said to himself, almost on the brink of tears.

As a rare, peaceful night like this on Earth, the dark and calm chill reflected hopelessness of getting a response from her. Nothing happened, he felt it was the worst night of his life and he felt that lonely feeling again all through the night.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

The next morning, Wally decided since there is no need to waste any more effort to wake Eve up, he will return to his original duties of garbage collecting. If he can't awaken her, the only choice would be to wait but that wait could be a very, very long time. There isn't much else to do but pass the time with a routine until then.

He finished packing his usual things as he heads off to work, not before he takes one last look at Eve, still mentally clinging to a fading light she will somehow be there to greet him the moment she's in his sight.

Same as always, out on the ramp near the truck, still frozen solid, nothing else. She isn't going anywhere or doing anything.

It shattered whatever hopes Wally had left in him as he slowly continues to work with Hal close behind, defeated. A look of pure gloom on Wally's face, his eyes blood-shot pink/red from a week without sleep, energy drained from exhaustion and lastly, his tears.

* * *

Something I wish to point out about the title of this particular chapter . . . it's a song by **B.J. Thomas**. It's the _song _that **Andrew Stanton **wanted to be the track for when Wall-E takes care of EVE. **Thomas Newman** instead wanted to make something more original instead.


	11. IT'S ADVENTURE TIME!

**DISCLAIMER**

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_.

* * *

Wally's movements are slow that day. Normally he could shovel and compact several cubes in just a minute but his depression makes minutes seem hours as he finishes his first trash cube in ten minutes of lazy scooping. He just stops, feeling there is no energy or spirit within him to carry out his duties. Even Hal sensed his master's unrest.

Wally pulls out one of his Zippo lighters from his front pocket and flicks it on just how Eve showed him.

Wally stares at the tiny flame, thinking about her as memories of that evening ran through his mind, the only time he had interacted with another human being, a lovely woman no less. The few minutes he spent with her were the most eventful and happiest in his life. In the mere ten minutes of being with Eve compared to three decades of his entire life of surviving on Earth, he felt truly alive.

He remembers seeing her face, an image of a girl that could strike so much affection into him to make him feel immeasurable love for her. He remembers her blue eyes looking at him when he talked for the very first time, something he thought he would never get to do or need to. He remembers how her warmth felt up close, the finer details of her soft skin made him ache to hold her or at least feel her touch, but as close as he got, it felt like a world apart.

He remembered her laugh. It sounded sweeter than the soft tune of "It Only Takes A Moment" and he _loved_ making her laugh as much as he _loved_ Eve herself. Then he thought of the moment he tried to hold her hand, how he came so close to feeling the warmth of his love run through her and from her to him.

Wally cowered away at the last second, just because he feared Eve didn't feel the same to him and would mean certain death if he dared try.

He thinks of the way she is now: cold, lifeless, and unresponsive . . . maybe completely lost.

_What if she never wakes up?_

The question resounds in his mind. In realization, Wally feels more alone than ever, even though she was there physically. He felt like he left without the world, without life, without a reason for a life and without her…

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

An earthquake resounds through the city. Wally snaps back into reality, so lost he can't figure out what's happening until he notices the accelerating wind blew the lighter's flame out. He knew something was out of place. Earthquakes don't cause such strong winds.

A familiar roaring sound echoes from somewhere.

_A building collapsing? Is that what causing all this? _he wonders.

Hal barked at the light emerging from the sky. Wally sees it's originating in the same direction of his home, and up in the sky. He saw the light of rocket engines. Eve's ship has returned.

His mind immediately alerted of what that meant.

"NO!" he shoots up on his feet.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Wally has never run fast in his life. Even faster, when something involves his own safety such as sandstorms, falling towers, floods, or any emergency endangered his life. No, he ran because _she_ was in trouble. He almost forgot about Hal, who struggled to keep up. It is a few kilometers back home through a maze of trash dunes and towers, Wally's insides ache from running but he must go on, he must get to her.

His worst fears confirmed as the giant recon ship Eve arrived in landed next to the bridge of his home. He's almost there but the rocket's side has opened up a cargo bay, facing his truck and Eve is still out there.

"EVA!"

A twinge of fear came over him as he sees a robotic arm reach out and grabs Eve's cryopod, retracting into the cargo bay. She is leaving, no, being taken away from him.

"EVA!" he screamed, almost out of breath from running as fast as he can.

Wally will not sit back and lose her forever. He'll be damned if she leaves. He will be left to rot for the rest of his life here. No! For he was going to get to her, tell her he loves her and wants to spend a lifetime with her. Even if it takes forever to free her or if it even takes his own life, he will spend at least another second with her.

Wally eventually figured he knew what must be done, he must get onboard.

When Hal caught up to him, only does Wally realize Hal was with him and he can't go to who-knows-where.

"Whoa!" he stops Hal in his tracks, shoeing him up the ramp of the truck.

"Stay!" he forcefully tells Hal. The mutt seems to understand as he sits down.

The sound of the ship's engines firing up snaps Wally into a panicked sprint. He pays no mind to what he has on him or what he's leaving behind but Eve's ship will launch any minute.

He heads back outside, sprinting after Eve, but he almost runs over the edge of the bridge when he tries to grab onto Eve's pod, retracting it into the ship. Wally realizes there is only one way to get on. He's goanna have to jump to get in the ship. It's a hundred meter drop to the dried up Hudson riverbed and to certain death.

The cargo bay doors begin closing, Wally mentally and physically racing against tremendous odds.

Wally has no time to contemplate! He runs to the other edge and boosts his speed with all his energy as he dashes like a maniac and jumps with all his might!…

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

…he barely makes it! A twenty-foot leap of faith, Wally lands in the cargo hold as the bay doors sealed shut behind him, the locks click in place with a hissing sound, the ship is pressurized for blast off.

Wally twisted his ankle as he hit the deck hard. He winces at the pain but pushes it to the back of his mind as he tries to find Eve.

"EVA!" he cries out to her.

Wally clamps onto a ladder as he tries steadily climbing to the higher decks, getting to where Eve's pod is stored.

The ship trembles and a deafening roar echoes in Wally's ears. The rocket boosters have ignited.

Wally clings tightly to the support ladder for dear life as the ship lifts off.

"Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh….."

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Back on the ground, Hal watches the reconnaissance ship blast off, hearing his master scream almost as loud as the rocket engines, even as both fade. The ship leaves the atmosphere.


	12. Intersteller Travels

**DISCLAIMER **

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_.

* * *

Soaring through the stratosphere at hypersonic speeds, the _Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle_ blasted through columns of polluted clouds as it accelerates to achieve escape velocity necessary to break free of Earth's gravity.

Wally immediately regrets jumping onboard, for he fought desperately against the G-forces on his body: forcing his blood out of his head, narrowing his vision, weakening his already strained muscles, adding more pain to his injured leg and tearing tendons in his arms holding against his multiplied weight, almost making him pass out. At least Wally stopped screaming, his mind racing too fast, Wally tightens his grip on the latter, bracing for whatever is to come.

He glimpses outside through a porthole, seeing the brownish blue haze of the sky darkening and the curvature of the horizon.

The ship suddenly shuddered, crashing sounds echo throughout the hull.

Outside he could see hundreds of thousands of Buy n' Large artificial satellites cluttered together in low orbit, banging and clanking against the ship at high speed.

Then, silence.

The banging and shuddering stopped. The _Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle_ cleared Earth's junk littered upper atmosphere. The rocket boosters have shut down and its sub-light antimatter engines have engaged, zooming gracefully into outer space.

Wally still clung onto the ladder as tight as his grip will allow, still in shock until the dead calm got his attention. He peeks outside the viewport, awestruck at the spectacular sight of the sky. Which was now stars. They are more beautiful than he's ever seen them before. They're so crystal clear, quiet, and magnificent against the vast blackness.

"Oooh…" he coos as he takes in the tranquility of space. He then looks back down on the planet they left. It's polluted and satellite littered atmosphere glowed in a phlegm color, highlighting the spherical shape, the green oceans and tan desert landmasses. Already tens of thousands of kilometers away, still looked ugly as it is up close, even the ground, which they departed from in the sector, was noticeable. Earth looked far smaller than he imagined.

Something didn't feel right, Wally failed to notice he let go of his grip but he didn't fall. Wally never realized there is no gravity in space. Panicking, he tries to grab on to the latter but decides against it.

He felt…good, the weightlessness, the peace and quiet, the heavenly starlight, it all felt like euphoria to Wally, like floating inside a womb. An experience he has never even thought possible. Sure, Wally never thought this kind of thing in his life, he was afraid of new things, but, he decides to just go with it.

He even savors the trip up the cargo hold where Eve's pod is stored. The zero gravity really takes the labor out of climbing a latter. Moreover, it made him feel like he could fly like Eve.

Wally grabs a hold onto the bays many structural bars and he sees Eve's pod secured into place, with at least four other identical pods just like hers. Three of them had frozen humans of different races in them. A petite olive skinned woman, a man with very dark skin, and another man with brown skin all wore white uniforms like Eve. One pod nestled in the middle, empty. Eve's pod was the only one with a glowing green light whilst the others lay dormant. He only cared about her pod's occupant. He floats over to see her face through the pod, just under a wide viewport.

"Look at that, Eva," he says to her catatonic form. He knows she can't hear him but she was there with him.

Outside, Wally can see they were passing by the Moon, the radiant pure whitish gray powdered lunar surface looked indistinguishable from snow, and it shined brilliantly against the blackness. They were close enough to see the ancient Apollo landing sites, the golden skinned Landers, the American flag of the old United States, the rover stood perfectly preserved by the weather free vacuum of space… a Buy n' Large holographic sign flicked on nearby, reading 'BUY N' LARGE OUTLET COMING SOON!' Buy n' Large literally everywhere.

Wally sighs in wonderment as he floats weightlessly next to Eve, starring out at the cosmos, he has a front row seat to the most ecstatic light show in the universe: the universe itself.

"It's so beautiful…just like you," he said quietly to her, longing she could savor the view he witnesses before him.

He stays like that for some time, noting every celestial spectacle and constellation the _Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle_ comes across as it sets out on its trajectory to leave the Solar System and back to the _Axiom._

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

The ride went smoothly but moved fast throughout the next few days, with antimatter engines and gravitational assistance, they were moving at a fraction of light speed, which is three hundred, thousand kilos per second. Within twelve hours after they left Earth, the _Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle_ had slingshot around the sun and let the centrifugal force of the maneuver propel them to the outer planets. Wally enjoyed every moment and every view of them. He especially loved the strange ring world named Saturn, the dark blue auroras of the planets clouds and ice rings were mesmerizing as Eve's eyes.

After twenty-four hours since lift off, the ship cruised through the Kuiper Belt, at the very edge of Sol. Wally drank in the colorful glows of the starlit ice clouds as if he was in a lysergic acid diethylamide trip influence like experience.

Three days later, the _Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle_ had the perfect view of the Oort cloud surrounding the Solar System. Its foggy appearance beyond the Kuiper Belt formed a nebula-like blur of tiny particles surrounding a tiny central speck that is actually the sun, surrounded by a local cluster of neighboring star systems. It's hard to believe such celestial bodies looked so small, and no matter what world he is on, he's part of the constellations.

After a week of traveling, Wally is struck senseless other than his eyesight by the cluster of trillions of stars whirling in deep space in a godly sized vortex centered on a radiant, cloudy core spanning his entire eyesight against the void. It was the entire Milky Way galaxy and he was at the very edge of it, the best view of it possible. The slow moving twirl of the glimmering stardust arms was hypnotizing, each star in a solar system and there were billions and billions of them out there. The galactic disk looks it was made of every color spectrum possible. Its beauty was the most blinding image Wally had ever seen, a picture of this moment in his memory he will hold forever.

However, it always will be bested only by the first time he laid eyes on Eve.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Wally had to break away from looking out the window at some point during his travel but he never broke away from being next to Eve or at least keeping his eyes on her, making sure she's ok. He didn't know where they were going or how long they will be gone, he surely doesn't want to starve or freeze to death before they get there because he may never live to see Eve again.

He completely forgot about his own survival or his body's needs. He didn't bring any provisions or any food, just his pacemaker's charger, his cassette player, his utility bag and his Zippo lighter, that's it. Wally's stomach growled furiously as he not eaten, he was too restless from the completely new experience to sleep. It was very cold too. He was accustomed to the hot temperatures of Earth's sandy deserts, but not the dry sub-freezing air of the ship for this reason the cryogenic pods needing such freezing conditions in order to function properly, the extreme coolness spreading to all of the environmental systems.

As he searched the whole ship, he was surprised to discover there were space traveler's supplies, a bunk, food and water but no one onboard. It was just him, Eve and the four other frozen human beings. Now he felt alone again with a hibernating Eve, trillions and trillions of kilometers from home.

Wally kept his attention between Eve, the outside view and searching whatever part of the ship in order to keep himself comfortable against the thought of being so far away from Earth. About this time, he has grown use to the zero gravity, finding it such a blessing to move around so easily like swimming in air. His sprained ankle healed nicely in the weightlessness, hardly felt any pain without the need to support his own weight.

He eventually found the control room in the front of the ship within view of Eve in the cargo hold. The cockpit controls and seats all there, but no one flew the ship. Wally looked over the control pad, glistening and glowing with touch-activated holographic screens filled with celestial navigation readouts, engineering & mechanical status, and all kinds of other systems. To Wally, it was incomprehensible. There were A LOT of things Wally doesn't know about how much advanced technologies have developed since humanity left.

He saw something on one screen that caught his attention, a map. Wally touched it and a 3D hologram projection of an interstellar star chart appears. It highlighted the red dot of the A.R.V. and the green line of the already traversed trajectory; from Earth, out of Sol, through the local cluster, past hundreds of other star systems within the Orion Arm and finally to the outer galactic rim.

A very short, hair-distanced red line lay before the _Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle_'s direction, their destination, a rather large object hidden in a nebula just beyond the very edge of the galaxy. Wally zooms in on it and a hologram of a spaceship shaped like an oceanic vessel appears, highlighted with the numbers _Buy n' Large_ _SL-AX-0001_.

Wally looked outside. He was shocked to find the same purple aurora clouds of the nebula on the map right before him. Wherever they were going, they were almost to a silhouette through the clouds.

What is it?

Wally was gonna find out soon enough.


	13. STOWAWAY On deck

This chapter was fun to do because of the showdown between Moe and Wally!

**DISCLAIMER **

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_.

* * *

There's something hidden within the purple nebula. Whatever it is, it's big.

_A planet?_ No, it's not spherical.

_A planetoid? An asteroid?_ Wally speculates, trying to make out its shape, looking strangely familiar.

As the _Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle_ clears through the purple gases clouds, Wally can see it clearly, he gasps when he realizes it is an enormous starship.

It must be five kilometers long from bow tip to aft tip, and its superstructure from the keel to it's spire must be at least seven kilometers high. It's primarily designed like Earth's ancient oceanic cruise liners, a fat hull with thousands, maybe millions of viewports, a streamlined superstructure and communications tower and traditional designed bow and stern. It had another superstructure to it, a sort of engineering spire that runs down from the keel that gives the vessel a look of a space station attached to it. Two massive Ion Drive engines were on each side, with propulsive motors a hundred times bigger than the _Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle_. On the bow's starboard side, the side the _Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle_ is approaching, bore the unmistakable red circle, white and blue lettering of the Buy N' Large logo. It's a Buy n' Large star liner, but not just any, it must be a flagship, the largest of the fleet.

Wally notices the christened name above the logo and confirms its familiarity.

"Buy n' Large's_ AXIOM SL-AX-1001_."

The very same ship Wally has seen from those holographic ads back on Earth. The largest moving object ever constructed by human hands. Wally never believed it actually existed or would ever see it to be real and here it proudly was.

The _Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle_ is about a kilometer away but the _Axiom_ filled the cockpit view. Wally stares almost straight up at it already dwarfed in the recon ship like an oil tanker against a dingy.

The recon ship slows down as it lines up next to the _Axiom_.

"Whoa," Wally steps back, thinking they were going to hit but he actually felt a bit worried standing next to that goliath.

The side of the _Axiom's_ large sliding fifty by a hundred meter doors opens up, big enough for the _Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle_ to fit. They were going to dock.

Two, smaller unmanned tug ships emerge from the opened bay and pass around the _Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle_ Wally wonders if he had to do anything. Here in the control room, did he had to pilot the thing inside? No way, he literally had no idea what to do.

The smaller ships made way for the _Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle_ as they each emitted blue tractor beams of light on the ship, guiding it in.

Wally stays frozen in place, floating in zero gravity, clasping the chair making sure he didn't do anything erroneous.

The doors to the bay closed with a hiss of air as the docking bay depressurizes.

The _Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle_ encounters locking clamps, the ship braces into place with a satisfying clink. The tug rockets disengage the tractor beam, the recon ship slides down a tad as its weight is supported.

Wally feels artificial gravity kick in as he falls to the cockpit deck floor.

"Ow." He lands hard.

Wally tries to stand but keeps falling over, feeling no strength in him to support his own weight, it almost hurts to try, not understanding because of the prolonged journey in zero gravity, his bones and muscles have weakened dramatically. It'll return eventually as he moves around some more.

He clasps onto the side viewport, trying to pull himself up to relay his new surroundings. The inside of the docking bay was unlike anything Wally has ever seen, a totally opposite environment he is from. It was all clean, brightly lit, sterile, advanced, well maintained and robotics everywhere. He notices no human crew were present at all, everything here was unmanned. Hell, the only thing not a robot he has seen yet was Eve, he wonders if this entire ship could be her home.

The deck suddenly becomes bustling with mechanical activity. Robotic arms, robotic devices, robotic equipment, robotic everything tended to the recon ship in all directions like an automated facility show, refueling its engines, running diagnostics on its systems, unloading cargo, repairing its—

Wait! One of the things unloading was Eve's pod, along with the other frozen E.V.R.E. scouts.

"Eva!" Wally tries to gather his slowly returning strength to get to her. He crawls and clasps his way to the open hatch. Wally manages to get enough strength to stand.

A noise startles him. He notices sounds and movement coming from out of the deck next to Eve's pod, placed along with the other pods.

He hides behind one of the cryogenic pods, listening closely to the sounds and movement. An elevator emerges from the deck, and there stood humans.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

A squad of four post-recon cleaners dressed in white uniforms and carried sterilizing equipment, scrubbers, washers, and so forth.

One of them, a short teenage boy with short dark hair wearing a newspaper carrier cap that had a red siren light on top and a darkened transparent Head's Up Display over his soft brown eyes stepped out. He wore a white jumpsuit with his name 'MOE' imprinted on his nametag and equipped with high-tech microbe obliteration scrubber and a container with lots of sterilization fluid strapped to his back. He wore heavy duty cleaning gloves and boots much like Wally's but rubber and far cleaner. About a head or two shorter than the rest of the crew, not to mention younger, but judging from his serious pose, he must have been the head in charge of them. He tries to line up the other three behind him. They seem to be having a hard time trying to pay attention.

"Alright, follow me. Whoa, whoa! WHOA! Stop!" he steps off the elevator but tries to stay in sync with an awaiting lighted path at their feet.

"Moe! Come On! It's just a frickin' guide path. Let's just get the job done!" The crewmember with a vacuum device protests to Moe's strict routine.

"Yeah, stop being such an O.C.!" Another cleaner shouts.

"Shut up! We don't move unless our path is cleared to go!" Moe shouts back to them.

Sure enough, the directed path to Eve's pod pinged on and lead to her.

"Alright, let's go!" Moe clears them to make their way over to Eve's lowered pod.

"Shrink," the vacuum cleaner says under his breath, but that didn't go unheard by Moe.

He hated being joked about his height because he stood only four feet and eight inches.

"I heard that! It's not funny!" Moe says defensively as the other three laughs at him.

But he shouldn't let it get to him, for he had to stay focused and look professional, in order to compensate for the name-calling.

At age sixteen, Moe is the youngest certified crewmember on the _Axiom_, personally charged with the maintenance and sterilization of the _Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle_ and all of its imports and exports. Scrubbing and cleansing all the cargo that went in and out of the ship, taking pride in his job, and took it well, maybe too well. He was pretty much the overseer of _Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle_ docking operations but his subordinates and fellow crew for many things still ridicule him. From his age, to his height, and most of all, his Obsessive Compulsive behavior, he always followed textbook procedures and protocol, even for the simplest of tasks. They also poked at his fear of germs and he would always try to get every last microbe off, no matter what it took.

In addition, that's exactly what Moe intends to do, stick to the standard operating procedure and ensuring cleanliness of this ship! He thinks to himself standing at the ready, ignoring the other crewmembers rolling their eyes.

Moe activates his Heads-Up Display and begins the scanning process on Eve's pod, looking for anything that changed on the pod and its occupants during their missions. He noticed the glowing pulse of Eve's beacon, something he never seen before. But it doesn't concern him. It'll be squawked by maintenance soon when they arrive.

He switches his vision over to electron micro-scan, Eve's pod lights up in some places as bacterial traces of soil particulates detected, dust a form of atmospheric/domestic aerosol that can become a deadly respiratory disease carrier onboard a sterilized spaceship. His vision evaluates and reads aloud:

"_SIXTEEN PERCENT FOREIGN CONTAMINATION._"

"Oh!" Taking out his scrubber, Moe scrubs in professional strokes across the surface of Eve's pod in disgust.

The Extraterrestrial Vegetation Reconnaissance Scouts were among the messiest of shipments, returning from their top-secret destinations unwittingly bringing back god-knows-what from whatever world they explored.

He finishes his last minute scrub as the others get to work on sterilizing, buffering, polishing, finishing the pod and moving on to the next one.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Wally watches from behind the cryogenic pods, still trying to figure out what to do. His strength has returned quite a bit so he could move and sneak around. Save for the cryogenic pods, there isn't much to hide behind. He looks at the cryogenic pod, an empty one. Then he shifts his attention over to the cleaners, studying their routine.

"Hmm," An idea brews in his head.

He enters the vacant pod, lies down and closing it without making a sound. As the robotic arm retrieves his pod, Wally braces himself for whatever is to come.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Moe finishes off the second pod and turns his attention to the next lowered one as the others finish up.

Moe activates his HUD.

"Huh? What's this?" This pod was registered empty but it's been opened and tampered with recently and there's something, or someone, inside it.

He notices new handprints on the side and movement inside. Someone IS inside the pod.

Moe opens the pod.

"What the?"

Wally freezes, caught.

Moe stares at Wally, never seeing this kind of person before.

"Who are-" Before Moe asks who the stranger is, he finally notices Wally's weathered attire, confused, he activates his micro-scan.

It almost blinds Moe when all of Wally's registered as dust, dirt, crud, grime, oil, grease, sand and bodily sweat altogether.

"_OVER ONE HUNDRED PERCENT FOREIGN CONTAMINATION!_" his scanner screamed off the charts but Moe screamed even louder as he jumped up awestruck and horrified at the presence of such filth and uncleanness. His siren lights up.

"Oh my god! What the hell is this? No, no, no, so wrong! So dirty! Very, very dirty!" Moe goes haywire. Wally shrinks down in his pod in confusion and fear.

"Must clean immediately! Eradicate any and all foreign contamination!"

Moe pulls out his scrubber, ready to furiously wash down Wally with all his skill and might.

"Ah! G-Get away from me!" Wally backs away from him, missing Moe's scrubber.

"Huh? Stand still, I must clean!" Moe reaches out to Wally, trying to scrub his face.

"Agh! Get off of me!" Wally cries out, falling out of the pod and pushing Moe clear off him.

"Aaaagh! I said I have to CLEAN you!" Moe groans in frustration.

"AAAGH! STOP MAKING SUCH A MESS!" Moe shrieks in anger as this horrifying filthiness worsens.

"Moe? What the hell is going on?" The other three cleaners stare at Wally and Moe, amused by the sight of their neurotic colleague losing his mind at seeing the dirtiest thing in his life.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

At the far end of the bay, a hatch opens and three men come marching into the docking bay.

Two of them were strong, identical looking guards, the stewards of the ship. They wore dark, neatly pressed servant uniforms and carried police officer equipment with energy binder handcuffs, tractor beam pens, electroshock batons, taser guns and siren equipped peaked caps.

The last one shorter and had less of a build, wearing a Buy n' Large Navy uniform. Shoulder sleeves on his uniform bore the enlisted stripes of Command Master Chief Petty Officer, the chief of the boat and head of security along with service nametag reading "MCPO F. GOFER."

They marched into the direction of the commotion at the cleaner station, the looks on their faces meant directive.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

The commotion is the heavy laughter of the cleaning crew. Moe having a hard time trying to keep up with cleaning Wally's every movement on the deck, tracking the hundred fold layers of germs on Wally's entire body, dust mites drifting in the air and falling to the ground.

Moe finishes Wally's last footprint with great speed.

"Alright you! Time for me to-"

Wally takes another step back, out of fear and amusement at the neurotic little guy.

"Oh COME ON!" Moe scrubs with compulsive precession and speed. Wally is fascinated that he isn't the only quirk in the universe.

"Look! Everything needs to stay clean! UNDERSTAND?"

Moe tries to leap for Wally but Wally, having learned of Moe's little weakness, slaps a handful into Moe's face, trying to shoe him off.

"Hey-" When Moe finally processes Wally just slapped dirt into his face to fend him off, his mysophopia kicks in.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Moe has lost it. Moe scrubs his face with full force and speed in panic.

Wally chuckles in relief, then notices the rest of the crew are too distracted to notice him as they are laughing their rear ends off at Moe. He notices a new group of humans approaching. They looked serious, maybe they were after him he wondered.

He quickly and quietly jumps back into the empty cryonic pod while no one is looking. Wally still had to see where this was going to go.

"What the hell is going on here?"

The cleaning crew instantaneously sobered up, trembling when realization struck they were caught goofing by Chief Gofer.

"I said 'what in the hell is going on?' sailors!" the chief had a voice of a drill instructor, sending a spine straightening terror down their backs as they stood at attention, including Moe, his face still dirty but had just a big fear of superiors.

"N-N-Nothing sir!" Moe nervously stuttered.

"You know the rules! No insubordinate behavior on duty! Is that clear?"

"Yes sir!" they shouted in unison.

"A'ight, return to your standby stations immediately, we will be taking over these pods for post-mission evaluation, for these cryonic pods and occupants contain highly classified information, now leave!"

"Aye sir." Moe and the three cleaners began marching out of the bay.

Chief Gofer pulled out a security chip from his pocket and inserted it into the fifth pod's side.

It chirped negative as the pod did not contain any biological data collected.

"Negative," Gofer said empathetically as he moved to pod four, it appears he has been doing this same meaningless routine for a long time also.

"Negative." Same result for pod four, he moves on to the next one.

"Negative," Gofer was about to move on to the next pod when he saw movement in pod three.

"What the?" he jerks his head back. The figure in the pod motionless through the fogged metallic casing, its occupant looked dirty. Perhaps Scout Three muddied himself.

"Eh," Gofer shrugs it off as he moves on to pod two.

"Whew," Wally sighs quietly in relief he was not caught for risking a peek at the human inspecting his pod. He lies back as stiff and lifeless as he could and tried not to make a single sound.

This time he risked another look at the human still on pod two, approaching Eve's pod.

"Negative," Gofer pulls out the chip and plugs it in to Scout One's pod.

"Neg-" A confirmative chirping from Jeanette 's pod cut Gofer off.

"Huh?" He is taken aback. A positive, this has never happened, it shouldn't be possible.

"It's gotta be a malfunction."

He notices the pulsating green light.

"My word. Is it . . ." One of the stewards whispers.

"Yes. It's reading positive." Gofer hastily taps his intercommunication earpiece.

**_"This is Master Chief Gofer in RECON DOCKING to COMMAND, Charlie Gulf, I repeat, Charlie Gulf. We have a vegetation scout who's recovered a live specimen! This is no bull, I repeat! We have a Code Green!"_** Gofer said with utmost alertness.

At that moment, the entire dock came to a halt as an alarm sounded, all the lights turned green.

Wally's heart raced as he tried to process all this new confusing commotion, he can hear everything through the pod. Something happening to Eve or was going to happen to her?

A few seconds later, Gofer's intercommunication device gets a response.

**_"This is COMMAND to DOCKING. We have confirmed your findings, now we need further authentication. Report the _****_Extraterrestrial Vegetation Reconnaissance & Evaluation _****_scout to the BRIDGE immediately."_** A monotone voice replies on the other end of the line.

**_"Aye Aye."_**Gofer switches off his earpiece, tapping a command onto a holographic computer pad and in just a moment, a maglev tram floats up to them.

Gofer turns to the stewards.

"Orders are to report to the **BRIDGE**, we are to bring Scout One to the captain and first officer, to see if this is legit, so let's get to it!"

"Sir, yes sir." One steward tap a command into Eve's pod.

Eve's pod suddenly levitates off the ground and lowers into the tram. Wally almost jumps out of his pod when he sees she is going to be taken away again.

Gofer and his guards board the tram and begin to hover off.

"Eva!" Wally runs out of the pod and sprints as quietly as he can as he follows the tram to the elevator the men entered from, without hesitating on where he is going or to the thought of someone following him.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Moe crouched down from his workstation on the second level of the dock. He wondered what was up with the pod they found. He couldn't hear the chief's voice even without that damn loud alarm.

_What is Code Green anyway and what's so secret about those pods?_

What concerned Moe even more was finding that unknown man unlike anything he's ever encountered before.

_He IS a mess,_ Moe thought to himself and his compulsion says clean him no matter what but duty has a strong hold as well.

He spots the messy man dashing across the deck and disappearing behind the elevator doors with the chief, the stewards and the pod.

After Moe watches him disappear-

_Wait a sec, didn't he leave tracks?_ His neurosis nagged.

His electron micro-scan activates, he could see that unknown man's footprints from kilometers away in a spotless environment like this.

"Agh, Forthright!" he cursed, now he has to clean up his trail but…what about where ever he is going? His mind calculates some of his speculations.

_What if he was after that pod? If I go after him, I could get in serious trouble for following a secretive device, and not to mention leaving this dock._

"_FOREIGN CONTAMINATION!_"his visor breaks him away from thought. Actually, it gave him a thought.

Well, he would be cleaning dirt as far as it goes if ever caught outside of here and it is his job to obliterate all unsterilized matter on this ship for health safety. In any sense, he's obeying protocol but then he would have to face the wrath of Chief Gofer in that light after he was told not to differ from duty. He weighed his options and made a decision.

He double checked if the other three left to their stations. No one is paying attention all is safe.

Moe jumps down to the deck and begins scrubbing away, from the tracks to wherever that man was following the chief's tram and the pod.

"I wonder what's in that pod is so important to him?" Moe asks himself.


	14. the AXIOM

**DISCLAIMER **

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_

* * *

The traffic is chaotic, all of the vehicles passing each other and missing each other by inches as they change directions. Now he can't remember where Eve went, Wally begins to panic at being lost.

In the direction that seems to go up a slope, there is a sign reading **AFT MAINTANENCE CORRIDOR**-TO–**AFT PASSENGER CORRIDOR**, under it is a tram with a familiar cryogenic pod in the distance!

"Eva!" Wally is relieved and drawn that he immediately runs through the passing intersection vehicles chasing after Eve, oblivious to hover trams almost running him over and the resulting pile up as they braked to stop.

Wally continued to run up the sloped passageway. Wally doesn't care to realize that the passageway he came from was not too narrow to run through anymore.

Wally reaches another set of hover lines, but they seemed different now. Instead of white lighted paths, they're blue. Wally noticed a strange looking hover vehicle in front of him. He runs up to see what it is.

The vehicle is a hover chair and sitting in it… a creature. It's a big creature. A really, BIG creature! Obese is actually a better word.

_Wait a minute,_ Wally notices the tan skin, face, and features of a human body. The creature is actually a human!

This was certainly the fattest human Wally had ever seen. It was a male Buy n' Large passenger; he looked like a giant human infant, weighing four hundred fifty to five hundred pounds. His skin was bloated like a blob, and soft to the touch like gelatin wearing a red jumpsuit bearing a Buy n' Large logo. His arms and legs are short, and stubby, like they were never meant to be used for anything.

_Is it possible for humans to be like that? _Wally wondered as he looks at this strange new being.

The man reclined in the chair where it seemed automated, guiding itself along the blue-lighted maglev lines on the floor. A holographic screen seemed to be presented right in front of his face, and speakers mounted on his headrest, blocking his peripheral vision, completely lost in his own sensual world. He is talking to someone on the screen.

"Look man, I've been in my cabin all morning, so why don't we say we hover over to the driving range and hit a few virtual balls into space?" the Caucasian sounded bored out of his mind.

"Nah, we did that yesterday I don't wanna do that," the African-American man on the holographic-screen complained.

"Well then what DO you want to do?"

Lost looking at the man, Wally doesn't notice the exact man he's talking to is right next to him.

"I dunno, somethin.'" Wally looks over his shoulder to finally see the second man, another Buy n' Large passenger just as fat and baby-looking like the other man, lost in his own world of the hover chair. Wally looks at them, the two humans have no idea they are within each other's presence.

"Huh," Wally slows down his pace as he reaches the entrance to the **MAIN DECK**. Wally merges in, and pauses in amazement.

The corridor is bustling with human activity. There must be hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of other humans everywhere.

They are ALL fat in hover chairs with the same red jumpsuits and holographic-screens in their faces just the ones he saw a second ago. Hover lines crisscross the floor, a maze of perplex directions of hover chairs Wally's mind can't process all of them, moving in all directions, and talking nonstop.

Wally carefully makes his way pass line after line of hover chairs toward another concourse, until gets into the same direction of the traffic flow. He realizes not one person has noticed him yet. Who couldn't? He remembers he is the skinniest and filthiest human on the _Axiom_, he can't be hard to find walking dirt against a sterile environment. Not to mention comparing his skin and bones appearance, he really stuck out like a sore thumb. Everyone remains oblivious to their surroundings, glued to their holographic screens, trapped in their own virtual realities. Each one of them had over-developed fingers tapping commands into their chair's armrest keypads. Wally sees one woman complaining she's hungry. Out of nowhere, a petite member of staff serving at table running to her, bringing an unbelievable large three litter cup of a liquid food like substance, like a fast food kind. The server puts the cup in the passenger's open hand and she gulps it down. She didn't move a muscle, if she had any.

Wally looks around him again, they all either ordered food, played games, or chatted. Chatting, chatting, chatting, and more chatting! It's deafening and everywhere! People talking mindlessly to one another without moving, moving without any reason to, they all amaze and disgust Wally somehow, how can people live like this? These people are the ultimate example of couch potatoes.

Wally passes through another tunnel: **AFT PASSAGER CORRIDOR**-TO-**MAIN DECK**. The lit end of the tunnel shines bright as Wally sees clearly before him, in complete awe, the **MAIN DECK**.

A feminine voice echoes throughout the vast open space.

"_BUY N' LARGE, EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO BE HAPPY. YOUR DAY IS VERY IMPORTANT TO US!_"

It's a city-sized ultra mall, a half metropolis/half consumer-goods shop inside a giant starship.

Living quarter rooms rise hundreds of floors up and elevated hover lines move in all directions like freeways. In the distance, there are shopping centers shaped like futuristic skyscrapers showing endless holographic Buy n' Large advertisements where the direction of the voice seemed to endlessly barrage people with its consumerism. Beyond that, was the sky? Impossible, he is in space. Wally notices the fake designed sun up above with a Buy n' Large logo. It had the time and temperature on the face reading 12:16 PM and 72˚ F. It's just an image projected on the inner dome of the _Axiom's_ hull high enough to be called the sky, must be hundreds of meters high. The _Axiom_ feels A LOT bigger from the inside.

"Hey waiter!" Wally snaps back into reality when his senses register someone is addressing him.

A man to his left hovered up to him and trying to hand Wally his empty cup, still isn't aware that Wally isn't a waiter nor of any surroundings like everyone else.

"Here, take the cup."

Wally backs away a bit but the man asks again.

"I said take the cup," the man sounded like he is becoming slightly annoyed. He tries to reach out further to Wally, finally breaking his eyes from the holographic-screen in front of him.

"Uuh.." Wally tries to utter he isn't a server, the man presses on.

"Come on! Take the cup!-Whoa!" He reaches out too far and falls to the floor.

He is stuck on the floor, his baby legs and arms can't get him to move, and instead he just flails his limbs like an upside down turtle. Wally grabs the drink out of the passenger's hand as ordered, trying least do what he told Wally to do.

Red lines appear under Wally's feet, and immediately two stewards brush past Wally, almost shoving him over to where the man fallen.

The stewards redirect the flow of stopped traffic around the man.

The man looks up at the stewards helping the other oblivious humans but him. He tries to get the stewards attention.

"Uh, stewards, hello? A little help? Please?"

One steward turns to the man on the floor, regarding him with an empathetic face.

"Please remain stationary, sir, service will be here to assist you shortly," he said in a practiced line.

"Uh, anybody? Help?" he tries to ask the crowd, all too busy ordering food, playing games or chatting. Wally feels a ping of guilt for the man, he could've just taken the cup and the blond never would have forced himself to fall over. The two stewards, as broad and strapping as they were, aren't doing anything much other than making sure these people get to their destinations on time. He must feel embarrassed for causing the delays of the passengers, and no one else is even offering to listen to the poor helpless man on the floor, inconsiderately pass him by. To correct his actions, Wally takes the matter into his own hands.

Before he picks up the man by the back Wally stuffs the jumbo size cup into his utility bag out of curiosity.

"Whoa! Wha-What's going on?" The man looks shocked.

Wally grunts as he strains against the man's weight, he's lifted heavy cubes before and developed a practiced lift, but not of this man's mass, likely four hundred pounds. Wally manages to lift him high enough to drop him back onto his hover chair, the man groans as he lands on his belly.

"Are you alright, sir?" Wally asks the fat man.

The fat man looks surprised as he sees Wally before him.

"Uuuuh…yeah…thanks," was the reply. He had short blond hair, freckles, brown eyes and he clearly doesn't know how to respond to the dirty, rail thin man before him, like he's the strangest person he's ever seen.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Wally," he introduces himself, trying to shake his hand with him. It's pretty awkward with his mechanical hand against a bulbous palm of a hand.

"Uh, I'm Jon."

He seemed confused, as if he couldn't get his bearings. He must've been in a virtual stasis for a long time, isolated from the outside world like Eve.

**Eve!** It hit him like a ton of bricks. The awesome structure of the ship made Wally almost completely forget he was searching for her!

"Eva?" Wally blurts out, frantically scanning all directions for her.

"Uh, no, it's Jon," the man thinks he misunderstood, not knowing about this 'Eva.'

Wally spots an open maglev monorail in the center of the deck lobby. Not that it is the only noticeable structure other than the thousands of identically dressed people, but the familiar pod attached to a tram boarding the monorail with Gofer and his steward escort.

"Eva!"

Wally sprints after the monorail, already forgetting Jon, leaving him even more confused.

"Uh…bye, Wally," Jon shyly waves farewell.

_That was interesting,_ Jon wonders if he will see that strange man again.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

The monorail about to depart, Wally guns it with whatever strength he has into his legs to make it!...

Just as the last car about to pull out, Wally successfully leaps on, but ends up hitting his shin.

Wally now has more pain to wince at but he caught up with Eve. The monorail picks up incredible speed as it cruises down the central parts of the city-ship.

As the tram made its way down, Wally takes another minute to be confound in wonderment at the scenery. It's a total blast in comparison to what he grew up with in his whole life. He sees a day care center full of fat infants being taught Buy n' Large predesigned education and fed treats by a slightly overweight elderly nanny. They pass a Buy n' Large food court, all of the people seemed to be preoccupied mostly by eating or drinking nonstop out of 'lunch-in-a-cup' as the ship's computer voice says it is. He also notices everyone had those large sized lunch-in-a-cup at hand, most preoccupied with eating, guess that explains the obesity. The tram passes a 'Feel Beautiful' beauty salon. Wally sees many female passengers entering to get their hair done, new makeup, their skin tuned and so on by beauticians, who probably weren't paying attention to them, reminding Wally of the female characters in Hello Dollywho worked and focused a lot on their physical appearance in order to look attractive or stylish. Only difference here is they are just as glued to their holographic-screens as much as everyone else is. How paradox, they worry about prettier looks when they don't actually look at each other. Wally never understood any of it.

He doesn't understand anything here. He couldn't possibly imagine this way of life.

Everything was so bright and clean, the sterilized air far from the toxic but accustomed stench of garbage and rot he grew up. It tingle his tainted lungs to breathe in and out of this pollutant free environment. The whole ship full of humans felt alive, the sounds of music and cheerful voices he's never heard before, nothing like the cries and screams of workers dying or begging for mercy. No, here it boomed with peaceful life but alluring with pointless luxuries. So much so the happy noises were deafening to him, his ears sensitive after spending decades in perpetual silence.

Nothing like Earth, this is actual civilization.

Wally's attention is drawn to the many jumpsuit fashion holographic-advertisements, the ship's voice comes on.

"_ATTENTION __AXIOM SHOPPERS, TRY BLUE, IT'S THE NEW RED._"

"Oooo…" the passengers next him actually noticed something out of their holographic screens. They pushed a command on their chair's keypad and all of their red colored jumpsuits turn blue. They go back to chatting, as if nothing happened.

"Whoa," Wally states in fascination, seeing how much technology changed these people, having to lift a finger to get what they want.

When he turns his sight to the front end of the monorail, he can see Eve's tram. He makes his way over to her but another obese human blocked his way, a red haired woman busy chatting on her holographic screen. Wally tries to squeeze through to the other side, if he could just…

The woman's chair backs up, pinning him to the wall.

"Ah!" Wally flails his arms as he tries to slip out.

His head is sore and there's not enough room to go around the woman. He'll have to get her to move. The woman is too busy to care to notice who's around her.

"Date?" she scoffs.

"Don't get me started on the date. Every holographic-date I have been on has been a _virtual_ disaster!"

"Excuse me ma'am?" Wally tries to get her attention, she's still oblivious.

"…If I could just meet one, one who wasn't so…superficial."

"Ma'am?" Wally taps on her headset, she still doesn't acknowledge him.

"I mean, there are no good men out there!"

"Ma'am?" Wally says loudly, tapped harder. He tries to pull off her headset.

"I know! I know because I scrolled through them all-" her headset shortens out as Wally accidentally breaks it off.

"What the—?" she gasps, her holographic screen flicker off and her jumpsuit color defaults to red. Wally backs away, as if he did something terribly wrong enough to feel her wrath.

She doesn't yell at Wally because she _still_ doesn't notice him yet. She takes in the light and try to focus on the far away structures of the **MAIN DECK** with her contracted eyes. When her vision clears, she is instantly hypnotized by looking at the passing cityscape of the _Axiom_, if seeing the outside world for the first time.

"Uuuh…Excuse me? Ma'am?" Wally whistles to get her attention.

"Huh?" Her eyes meet Wally's, just as confused as Jon, unsure of what to say at this weird man.

"Uuh…Can I move to the other side? Please?" Wally asks politely, pointing towards Eve.

The woman looks at him for a second, still fazed by how dirty he looked until she follows his finger to the other side of her chair, to the vacant spot next to a cylinder mounted on the tram. She slowly realized he was asking her to move back a little.

"Oh! Oh, um, sure, go ahead!" The woman commands her seat to hover back as Wally gets through.

"Ah, thank you, miss…?"

"Mary," the woman introduces herself.

"Wally," he gestures to himself as he waves goodbye to Mary, making the last few steps to Eve's pod.

Wally sighs in relief now he is back with Eve after losing her and roaming the massive ship.

He climbs onto the back of the tram. Gofer shouldn't be able to see him as long as Wally doesn't have to run after them again. He clings onto the pod protectively, not wanting to go through so many distractions and misadventures again.


	15. BRIDGE LOBBY part 1

**DISCLAIMER **

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_.

* * *

The monorail passes through another tunnel under a holographic-sign: **MAIN DECK**–TO–**LIDO DECK**.

This deck is a massive artificial paradise with hundreds of floors of beach house styled living quarters in a ring surrounding a vast circular swimming pool with adjacent spas and holographic palm trees all around it. There are hundreds of other passengers here. None of them are in the water. All of them sat by the poolside, under umbrellas with their food-drink cups, still hypnotized to their holographic-screen chairs.

_Figures,_ Wally wondered if everyone must be that lazy or brain dead.

The monorail comes to a stop in the front of the **LIDO DECK** where there's a large Buy n' Large logo on the floor, and an entrance to the **BRIDGE LOBBY**. Wally looks up from the entrance to see a towering spire. At the top was a windowed observation deck built into the ceiling, it must be where they're going.

Eve's tram got off towards the entrance with Wally staying out of Chief Gofer's sight, wondering what's going to be up there.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Meanwhile, Mary and the other passengers leave the monorail. The other passengers go about their business on their path lines with Mary taking in her surroundings. She moves about freely, fascinated at everything she sees of the massive ship.

She gasps as she oversees the **LIDO DECK**.

"I didn't know we had a pool!"

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Eve's tram enters a vast hall, in the base of the control center spire. It's mostly empty, except for a single receptionist desk in front of the elevator to the **BRIDGE** guarded by an impenetrable blue force field with holographic letters scrolled over it reading **BRIDGE ACCESS- AUTHORIZED PERSONNELS ONLY**.

The tram stops in front of the desk. Wally still remains hidden, risks a look over the pod to see why they have stopped.

At the desk was a red hair woman, skinny like Eve and wore a white Buy n' Large Navy uniform typing on a translucent keyboard onto her holographic screen, her fingers moving at impossible speed, filling out entire reports in just seconds.

The woman seemed lost in her virtual screen before her, eyes seemed bogged down and sleep deprived like she's been doing this task for a long time as Chief Gofer coughs to get her attention.

"Excuse me." Gofer gets a little impatient.

She unglues her sight from her screen, finally stopped typing when she realizes who was addressing her.

"Oh! My apologies Master Chief Gofer, sir! What can I do for you, sir?" she salutes him. He gets straight to it.

"I need to get to the **BRIDGE**, it's urgent."

The typist looks at the pod questioningly.

"May I ask why, sir?" she asks kindly while still at attention.

"That's classified. I'm under orders from Commander Otto to report to him immediately."

"I understand, sir, but I am required to ask for authoriza-"

"I said I was ordered to report to the **BRIDGE** by the first officer immediately, and that means now!" Gofer orders her to let him pass, the typist is just doing her job but this is far more important.

"Yes sir," the typist punches in a command and the security field guarding the elevator deactivates. Gofer drives the tram right past her and into the elevator.

The typist was just about to return to her original duty when the typist notices someone clinging to the back of the tram.

"Huh?" she looks at the spectacled dirty man puzzled. She has never seen anybody like him before.

"Hello," Wally says quietly, giving her a friendly wave. She didn't seem like much of someone to be afraid of besides Gofer.

The typist is baffled, unsure of how to respond to this unfamiliar person. Before she could, the elevator doors close as it rises toward the **BRIDGE**.

"Huh, weird," she says to herself.

_Out of the ordinary indeed,_ _but far better than being ordered at by the chief_, she thought.


	16. Captain on deck!

**DISCLAIMER**

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_.

* * *

Fifty meters, one hundred meters, two hundred meters . . . the transparent elevator rose higher and higher. Wally was on the side facing the **LIDO DECK**. The view is great, the higher they go, the more the inside of the ship they could see, from the base of the **LOBBY** to the rear of the **MAIN DECK**. Wally had forgotten to tense up whenever it came to heights now. Unlike working on top of the trash towers on Earth, the elevator had hardened glass to prevent him from falling and the spectacular sight of the deck has lured him away from his acrophobia.

Suddenly the view goes dark. They reached the top of the tower. The elevator doors open and the tram slowly hover into the **BRIDGE**.

The large, air conditioned circular room dimly lit, the elevator rose from the center of it. One side of the **BRIDGE** was a wide glass window facing out into space and the other side was also a vast viewport overlooking the bright interior of the _Axiom_, you could see the entire inside of the ship from up there. Wally looks around. The surfaces of everything polished, hundreds of multicolored control consoles surrounded the walls in a large circle. Dials, gauges, charts, readouts, screens, buttons, switches, lights, beeps, and sound everywhere; but it was all very dim and very quiet, a soothing atmosphere.

Something catches Wally's eye, or rather, someone.

A sole figure operated the helm, facing away from them out into the blackness of space, steering the ship.

The tram stops, Chief Gofer standing at attention.

"Master Chief Gofer reporting, sir!" he salutes the man who slowly turns around to face them.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

First Officer Otto of the _Axiom _stood six feet, four inches tall, looked to be in his mid thirties and had a strong, lean built body. He wore a flawlessly pressed white Buy n' Large naval officer's uniform with a black tie and gloss black shining uniform dress shoes. He was spotlessly clean, not a single speck of dust or lint on him. His broad shoulders bore the gold star and bar ranking insignia of commander. He wore an embellished Buy n' Large naval cap to go with his uniform; his jet black hair was combed neatly across his scalp and slicked down with a waxy cream. He had a charming, clean-shaven pale face, eyes gunmetal gray. The inexpressive eyes reminded Wally of Eve's combat stare whenever she tried to shoot him but this is Otto's natural look: empathetic. A pink scar ran over his right eye, a faint red dot seen within its pupil. It's a prosthetic eye, a realistic looking prosthetic eye.

Unlike Wally who is feral, messy, physically clumsy, yet adorably lovable, Otto is strappingly handsome looking, professional and discipline-minded but intimidating. They are polar opposites of each other.

He strolls over to the tram with his perfectly straight posture, he walks with a military officer's metallic pace stick, and it had tiny buttons along the grip.

"I've brought the scout as you requested, commander." Gofer still stands at attention as Otto focuses on Eve's pod.

"I see," his voice was deeply monotonous and unemotional much like his eyes. The sound of his voice unnerved Wally. He sneaks away from the tram as Otto approaches.

"Are you positive this reconnaissance cryogenic pod registers a legitimate finding of a specimen?" he asked.

"Affirmative, I initially believed it to be a malfunction, but their systems never had problems, so I assumed it to be an actual find," Gofer replies.

"You cannot presume these cryogenic pod's subroutines are not prone to defect master chief; therefore that's the reason I ordered you to bring it here for further verification."

"Understood, sir," Gofer nervously replies as Otto retrieves his own security chip from his pocket, and inserts it into Eve's pod.

A few seconds passed as his advanced analysis chip scans and double-triple check the pod's systems. It pings positive. Otto's eyes remained unemotional even as they widen in realization, the rest of him freezes.

"It's confirmed, the finding is authentic. Scout One has indeed retrieved a live photosynthetic organism," he said flatly.

"If that's true, then…that means…" Gofer trails off, his voice down to a whisper.

"Affirmative," Otto cuts him off, his voice too quiet.

"It means we must initiate Directive _Alpha 1-1-3_."

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Wally watches the exchange between the two from the far end of the room. They have lowered their voices, but he guessed it must have been very important and secret.

"…then you know what we must do…" Is all he could clearly make out from their hushed voices until Otto returns his to normal tone.

"I will notify the captain."

Wally panics when the tall man heads in his direction.

His mind went blank for a second not knowing what to do, until he backs into a small circular enclosing space. The doors close all a sudden, and he feels a descending feeling. He realizes he is in another elevator. He's astonished and relieved he inadvertently didn't get caught eavesdropping in a place he doesn't belong.

The doors open up again to reveal a darkened room. Wally quietly makes his way out and into the room, trying to get his bearings. He hears a snoring sound coming from somewhere in the darkness. Someone must be sleeping in here. Wally's mind races again when he tries to find another way out before-

Otto's voice comes over the room's P.A. system.

**_"Captain, this is the commander, I apologize for disturbing you sir, but a situation of utmost priority has arisen and you are needed on the BRIDGE as soon as possible, Sir. Otto out."_**

Wally freezes in his tracks. Was he about to be caught?

The room's dimmed lights slowly turned on. One viewport looked out into space and another one to the deck, but that window has polarized, darkened for a sleeping environment.

The room is nautical themed with models of starships, pictures and paintings of ancient sea-going ships and spacecrafts, Buy n' Large Navy flags and celestial charts. Whoever lives here must have been an important crewmember.

Wally sees a row of holographic portraits on the wall. Each person in the pictures wore the same Buy n' Large naval officer's uniform, with the rank of captain. Each had a plaque with their names and years of service. Starting from the first captain Wally had seen in the _Axiom_ holographic-ad, "Captain Reardon 2105–2248." Wally scrolls over each newer captain, who were fatter than the last, showing the devolution of humanity.

An alarm buzz sounds and the window depolarizes, flooding the room with light. Wally turns to see a fat man right in front of him, snoring on his bed.

This blob of a human, who looked to be in his late forties, had dark short crew cut hair, thick eyebrows, and is so fat his chin and neck disappear into his torso. Unlike the rest of the passengers, he wore a white Buy n' Large jumpsuit. He too had a hover chair to move around in, this one had no holographic-screen though, and it could fold into a bed.

_Wait a sec,_ Wally looks at the sixth and final portrait: "Captain B. McCrea 2775 – present." It's the exact same face.

_This fat man is the captain?_ Wally looks at him in bafflement.

He stirs, sleeps disturbed by the alarm reading 12:25 PM, must have slept in.

The captain subconsciously reaches out to shut the alarm, mumbling in his sleep.

Only a foot away from the awakening captain, Wally tries to back away.

Too late, the captain accidental slaps the side of Wally where his cassette player is strapped, activating it.

"_…Put On Your Sunday Clothes, There's Lots Of World Out There!..."_ The player plays its tunes at max volume.

"AH! ALL HANDS ON DECK!" the captain shoots straight up in his sleep, falling back down.

_Crap, Crap, Crap! I gotta turn it off! Turn it off!_ Wally panics, he turns off his player but the captain must know he's here.

His chair rises into a sitting position.

_Crap,_ thinking he was discovered, Wally shrinks down preparing for the worst.

Suddenly, two robotic arms, a beautician unit and a messaging unit, appear out of the cabinets behind the hover chair. They both begin brushing his teeth, trimming his hair, patting down his back, even dressing him.

The captain is still dozed, struggling to open his sleepy hazel eyes but is probably aware of being prepped. Wally looks at the captain's toes and messages the tiny blobby appendages in hopes of not alerting the captain of his presence. The captain giggles to the tickling of his toes. He is now fully prepped and dressed. He has the same captain's uniform and embellished cap like the others but the uniform is so tiny on him it's only draped over his shoulders, with only one button at the middle to fit his overly large neck_. _

A lighted path appears on the floor as his chair hovers toward the elevator Wally entered. Wally dashes behind the captain's chair when he yawns, taking the chance not to be found.

The doors close and open again as they reappear on the **BRIDGE**.

The captain, still slowly waking up, claps his hand twice. The whole **BRIDGE** responds with a coffee maker appearing out of a console pouring a fresh cup, Johan Strauss II classical music softly playing over the sound system, and his chair's command paths highlight the floor.

"Captain on deck!" Commander Otto and Chief Gofer stood at attention and salute, the captain is too sleepy to respond as he hovers his way to the nearest source of caffeine.

Otto attempts to brief the captain.

"Sir-"

"Coffee," he cuts Otto off.

He waits patiently behind the captain as he takes his time to grab his cup, he makes no effort and just has his chair push him up to get it, even the highest of commanding humans have become lazy.

"Sir, the annual-" Otto is cut off again by the captain giving him the hand.

He's too busy savoring the taste of his coffee he needs this stimulant to do a boring routine, because he's been doing this job for a long, long time.

"Protocol, Otto, first thing first."

Boredom alone is all it takes him to fall asleep it had to be done.

"Understood, sir." Otto showed no signs of being in a hurry, but then again, he never shows anything.

"Computer! Status report!" the captain says aloud to the room. In an instant, his hover chair whooshes over to a row of consoles, specifically those concerning the conditions of the _Axiom_.

His chair slowly and automatically scrolls along the holographic monitoring panels, bringing the ship's artificial intelligence up online to relay him any new information.

"Mechanical systems?"

"_UNCHANGED – NO MALFUNCTIONS SQUAWKED."_

"Reactor core temperature?"

"_UNCHANGED – FUSION DRIVE WITHIN POWER LIMITS."_

"Passenger count?"

"_UNCHANGED – 1,550,000 SOULS ABOARD, NO BIRTHS OR DEATHS REPORTED."_

"Regenerative food supply?"

"_UNCHANGED – ARTIFICIAL ORGANIC CROPS AT CAPACITY_

"Jacuzzi potential of hydrogen balance?"

"_UNCHANGED – ALL SPAS INDICATE NEUTRAL POTENTIAL OF HYDROGEN AT 7.0."_

Wally stayed hidden in the elevator, since everyone will be busy on the consoles to discover Wally at the least. He eyes Eve's pod at the other end, Gofer turns away and Otto follows the captain. Wally tries to formulate a way to get to her.

"Atmospheric conditions?"

"_UNCHANGED – SEVENTY SEVEN PERCENT NITROGEN, TWENTY THREE PERCENT OXYGEN, FULLY PRESSURIZED."_

"And laundry service volume?"

"_UNCHANGED – NANOFABRIC JUMPSUIT STERILIZATION FLOWING NORMALLY."_

The captain's chair stops at the end of the system's panel, all of them working perfectly. Of course, on this ship nothing changes. Hardly anything ever breaks or is need of repair or replacement. Everything is state-of-the-art, remotely kept in top notch condition for prolong journeys in space. That bogged down the captain a lot, everyday would be like this and there's nothing to do but live in excessive luxury, then again, there isn't anything else.

Otto brings up another screen, displaying the _Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle_ scout's data, one of them, Eve's, is glowing green, positive. He stands at attention awaiting the captain to finish.

"Okay, Otto, all systems check out green. Now, what was it you wanted to tell me?"

"Yes sir, the annual terrestrial vegetation reconnaissance has–"

The captain failed to notice Otto's statement, drawn to one screen displaying the time.

"12:30?" He's wide awake now, realizing its past due publicly addressing the ship.

"Otto, why didn't you wake me for morning announcements?"

"Forgive me, Sir, but you insisted to sle-"

Before Otto can respond further, the captain has already shot across the **BRIDGE** to the other side, facing the ship's interior. He taps a large dial indicating time of day, changing it from _12:30 PM_ to _9:30 AM_. Out on the **MAIN DECK**, the entire ship responds with the artificial sun moving at high speed from midday to sunrise, food kiosks changing stocks from lunch to breakfast, all hover chair traffic and entertainment activities coming to a halt.

"Honestly, it's the one thing I get to do on this ship."

The captain sounds the announcement blow whistle that resonates throughout the ship, and a live fiber optic video feed broadcasts him on everyone's holographic-screens, even the holographic-ads and the ceiling turn into a broadcasted video feed. He begins his routine announcement.

**_"Well, good morning everybody, this is your good ol' Captain McCrea speaking, and would like to welcome you to day 255,642 aboard the Buy n' Large's Axiom. As always, the weather is a balmy seventy two degrees and sunny, and uh-"_**

He notices the recorded date on the ship's Earth-time based chronometer reading _1231:16 hours, JUNE 27th, 2805_: exactly seven hundred years, zero months, zero days, zero hours, thirty one minutes and sixteen seconds since the ship launched.

**_"Oh, hey, I see that the ship's log is showing that today is June 27th, 2805, our seven hundredth anniversary of our five year cruise! Well, I'm sure our forefathers will be proud to know that seven centuries later we'd be…"_**

_Just another pointless day,_ he wonders to himself. Even everyone on board thought the same thing.

**_"…doing the exact same thing…they were doing…"_**

Nevertheless, it's worth mentioning. He snaps back into a welcoming mood.

**_"So! Be sure next mealtime to ask for your free…"_**

He can't even say the word correctly. The screen brings up the pronunciation feature, but it's still tricky for him to get it right even as he tried it.

**_"…Sep-tu-a-cen-ten-ial cupcake, in a cup! Wow, look at that! Also, today we have a-" _**

Drawn away from his broadcast, the captain observes an unknown button flashes on his console. It's green, looks like it hasn't been pressed ever, and has the same plant icon as Eve's beacon.

The captain switches off the broadcast. The passengers look a bit confused but go about their business.

_This is interesting,_ he doesn't recall being any function like this on the control panel.

"Um, Otto, what's that flashing button?"

Otto saluted the captain, waiting patiently as always.

"Sir! It was just the matter I was about to address sir, for it concerns with the protocol of the annual Extraterrestrial Vegetation Reconnaissance. That device, there, activates the systematic procedures upon the event one of our scouts discovers and returns with a live specimen of biological life forms."

Otto notions to Eve's pod, he deactivates the energy binders holding it in place with the tram and pulls out his data-pad with Eve's recon findings. The captain is dumbfounded that he didn't know it was on the **BRIDGE**.

"What's _that_ doing here?" the captain points at it.

"It is Extraterrestrial Vegetation Reconnaissance & Evaluation Scout One's explanatory cryogenic pod, Sir. Scout One was sent to Earth, assigned to an overlooked region for the centennial evaluation; our long range sensors have detected its subspace beacon and the Return Vehicle has brought her back. And most importantly, you're not going to believe this sir, but…Scout One has returned with a positive finding of photosynthetic life."

The captain's senses are now wide awake at the sound of those words.

"Positive?" He never thought any life was found on Earth, or any compatible planet. It somehow told him it was to be true, but he couldn't help but deny it.

"Impossible…" the captain whispers in doubt.

"Yes sir, we initially believed this report to be an error, we've already cross-referenced the pod's network for any subroutine defects. Nonetheless, our diagnostics have found no evidence of system flaws whatsoever. The scout has indeed found a live biological organism."

"Are you sure?" the captain asks.

Otto types in the code to the pod's holographic keypad.

"Well, sir, let's ask her ourselves."

Otto punches in the last digit, the pod hisses open.

Inside, Eve slowly reanimates and regains consciousness.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Wally's heart skipped a beat. Two beats. His eyes widen with pure joy for the first time ever since he last laid eyes on her. Eve has reawakened!

"Eva!..."

He no longer cares about being spotted in the elevator anymore. After days of seeing her lifelessly frozen, he had almost forgotten what it was like to see her alive and beautiful for real. He is too compelled to look at her, so he quietly makes his way behind the central elevator to get closer to them. At least he can clearly hear what their saying.

Eve stirred and rises from stasis in just a few seconds. Her eyesight returned quickly and so did her disciplinary instincts when she recognizes her superior officers around her.

"Second Lieutenant Eve of Vegetation Recon reporting, sir!"

She instantly stood from still unfreezing to attention, saluting the captain and commander. She coughed out cryogenic residue from her lungs so see could breathe normally again.

"At ease, lieutenant. How do you feel?" the captain asks.

"I'm feeling alright, sir," Eve coughed while regaining her composure as she looks around her.

"Where am I?"

"Back on board the _Axiom_, the _Axiom Reconnaissance Vehicle_ retrieved you after we intercepted your pod's distress signal, activated via your neural implants upon the discovery of any life you may have found. And as unlikely as statistics allow, it appears you have found positive plant life on Terra-three of Sol," Otto said.

Eve tries to think and relay all the information.

_Terra-3, Sol, third terrestrial planet of the Sol System, aka: Earth._

Her memories come back to her in fragments, a side effect of the unfreezing process.

"Yes…yes, my assigned directive _Alpha One dash Zero One_ was to Earth, specifically _Sector NA-001_. North America – City 001, formerly known as New York."

"The capital city of the Buy N' Large government?" the captain asks.

Eve joggles through her mind to deliver her official report with the captain intently listening.

"Affirmative, I was assigned this area because it was often disregarded to find any life near where our civilization last looked back to see anything besides the trash-barren lands. I even inspected the _Axiom's _launch site. All of it is as structurally intact as it was when the last of humanity left Earth in 2105. Anyway, I believe it was within a week of my search, I encountered a seedling plant somewhere in the 'Hudson Bay.' I inspected it and biodegradable analysis clearly checks it out as a plant that processes photosynthesis of carbohydrate and oxygen for breathable air."

The captain presses on for answers behind the location where she explored.

"But why search the very center of the planet's most heavily polluted area? After all, the capital is where the trash crisis all started."

"Well we have not surveyed the area over the last several decades, sir and conditions do change in that kind of time period. Of all the other sectors my fellow scouts believed likely to find anything compatible, from Brazil to Siberia or Canada. I thought it was most likely to find things in places overlooked, mostly trashed cities or former population centers other than open spaces of deserts or tundra."

The captain takes in the info, realization sinking in.

"So your official conclusion means the complete survey is a success, and the planet can support complex life?"

"The planet's environmental condition is still poor overall, but it's technically habitable."

The last word 'habitable' hung in the captain's head.

"And you are absolutely sure of this?" the captain asks for a final answer.

"Yes, sir, that is my official report. I even have the specimen in my container with me, its solid proof that as of now, planet Earth is once again a life bearable world."

A few seconds pass before Otto responds.

"I concur with the lieutenant's statement, captain."

"As do I, sir," Gofer replies as well.

_Yes!_ Eve triumphantly thinks to herself. At last something worthy and important finally! And her second directive, _A1-02_ was accomplished, only one more to fulfill!

The captain remains silent, half-shocked/half-unsure. He looks back down on the flashing green button.

"But…no scout's ever come back positive…before…"

"Well, I have now, sir," Eve proudly replies.

Otto steps forward.

"Sir, I can reassure you, you no doubtingly know what this means and what needs to be done at this point…" He eyes the same button as the captain.

"…but the decision to proceed is up to you."

The captain realizes the significance of this event. One the previous captain, one thing he believed he would never live to witness, briefly told of him: the time humanity, after seven hundred years of safe sailing in outer space, will end the day they set foot on the planet. Though he hated routine and boredom, it felt safe. Leaving to an unclean planet without the sterile luxuries felt too dangerous.

As captain, he has procedures to follow in order to do what has to be done.

He scans his thumbprint for the green button's biometric scan, and pushes the button.

An alarm sounds in the **BRIDGE**, the captain almost falls out of his chair and Wally almost yelps loud enough to give away his position. Then, blast doors and metallic shades close all the windows, darkening the room.

A holographic-screen appears before the helm, the _Buy N' Large jingle_ flicks on:

**_- ROOM SECURE, COMMENCING TRANSMISSION - _**

The screen changes to a man in a fine business suit standing before a presidential podium. His unmistakable overly optimistic express said it all for who he is.

Shelby Forthright, the late Buy n' Large Chief Executive Officer.

**_"Greetings and congratulations, captain! If you are watching this message, that means your E.V.R.E. scout, or 'Extraterrestrial Vegetation Reconnaissance and Evaluation' scout, has returned from planet Earth with a confirmed specimen of ongoing photosynthesis. That's right! It means it's time to go back home!"_**

"Home? We-we're going back?"

The captain's worst fear just been said aloud by the CEO himself, they are going back to Earth, no more _Axiom_.

Everyone in the room drawn to the prerecorded message except Wally who sees a window of opportunity to make his way over to Eve while everyone is distracted.

**_"Thanks to the hard-worked efforts that our company's workforce made here for 'Operation Cleanup,' our home world has been successfully restored to a life sustaining status. And by golly, that means we can initiate 'Operation Recolonize.'"_**

Wally freezes when a sound comes from the console he hid under, the captain and Otto's attention become alert to the noise and head over his way. Did he trip a wire? Strangely, nothing happens. Wally sticks his head out for a peak. The captain and Otto picked up a red book that emerged from a sealed storage console. It looked old, and was never opened before. The captain blows away the dusty exterior of the book to reveal an operation manual for the recolonization of Earth.

Wally and the captain watch the screen as a simplistic systematic animated illustration appears for placing a plant into rising device that leads the ship to Earth.

**_"Just simply follow this manual's instructions to place your retrieved specimen, into your ship's holographic-detector, and the Axiom_**** _will immediately navigate your return to Earth. It's that eas_y!"**

"Huh," the captain and Wally utter simultaneously, it seemed _very_ easy.

The captain, Otto and Gofer had their backs to Wally as they watch the presentation and message. Wally looks over to Eve, standing by herself in the back corner. The stewards have already left the **BRIDGE**, now is his chance, he sneaks his way to Eve.

**_"…Now due to the effects of microgravity, you and your passengers may have suffered some 'osteoporosis,' or in medical terms: 'slight bone loss.'"_****The CEO chuckles at the illustration of the degraded human body in zero gravity. **If he saw what the people of the _Axiom_ has become though.

**_"But I'm sure a few laps around the ship's jogging track will get you back in shape in no time..."_**

The captain stares at his short chubby appendages for legs, barely can lift his own foot.

"We have a jogging track?" he asks Otto.

"Yes, sir, but no one used it ever and have been retrofitted for the E.V.R.E. training purposes."

"Oh."

**_"…And if you have any further questions, just consult your operation manual. On behalf of Buy N' Large, your world's greatest and only Superstore, this is CEO Shelby Forthwright, signing off. See you back home real soon!"_**

**_- END TRANSMISSION -_**

The captain and Otto stare at the book. The captain reads the cover.

"Op-er-ate, Man-well," the captain miserably mispronounces the operation manual.

"It's 'Operation Manual,' sir," Otto corrects him. At least he had Otto to help.

Now it was up to them to take the colonization of the ship to Earth into their hands.

"Best get started, I guess." The captain holds out the book, and speaks into it aloud, thinking it to be voice activated.

"Manual, relay instructions!"

Nothing.

"Manual?" The captain scrutinizes the book closely for anything to turn it on.

Otto waits patiently and inexpressively, he couldn't help but think humanity has fallen so far that even superior officers couldn't read properly and can't even know a book when they see one.

"Allow me, captain," Otto interjects the captain's fiddling and simply pulls open the hardcover page. He steps back with his arms behind his back when he's done.

The captain responses fascinated, he's never seen a book before.

"Wow! Would you look at that, paper that can hold and relay information. Genius!"

This recolonization thing is going to take awhile.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Eve stands eagerly at the corner of the **BRIDGE**, waiting for what her superiors will have in store for her when they need to carry out the task of getting back to Earth.

While waiting, she tries to recollect more of her foggy memories of her trip. It's slowly coming back in pieces, mind was frozen along with her body.

She slowly remembers the emotions running through her when she went joy flying around the clouds, destroying a ship in anger, finding the plant, and in the home of… Her mind struggles to remember the name of that surviving cleanup worker who followed her around whom she almost killed by blowing him to smithereens and sent him flying through a wall…

Wally! That's his name.

Eve remembers meeting that poor man stuck on that planet, working and surviving his whole life. He barely survived her jumpiness just to get a glimpse of her. She remembers he gave her shelter from a deadly sandstorm, showed her his prized but sole possessions. There was something odd about him and her thoughts. He seemed to look at her in ways making her wonder what's going on in his mind, about what he sees in her. The last thing she remembers is freezing up after she took the plant from him. It must have been at least three weeks since then, she wonders what he is doing right now…

A tap on her shoulder drew her out of train of thought. She looks over to see a familiar face of a filthy cleanup worker.

"Not now, Wally."

She tries to remember what she was think—

_WAIT! WALLY!_

Her mind blew a fuse and her heart stopped altogether.

"Hello, Eva," Wally waves with a smile, he's too happy to see her again.

Eve however is too slack-jawed in shock and disbelief to answer.

"Eva?" Wally asks again, her eyes looked fully contracted in sudden shock.

Seconds seem like minutes when he waits for her answer.

Finally, her mind speaks its only thought.

"**WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" **Eve half whispered and half yelled at Wally.

Before Wally could answer, Eve hushed him and shoved him under a darkened console as fast as she can.

"Eva? What are yo-" Eve grabbed his mouth, muffling his speech. She frantically checks to see Chief Gofer isn't paying attention to them.

She turns back to Wally.

"Wally, what are you doing here? How did you get here?" Eve whispered loudly as she could.

Wally tires to explain behind her grip over his muffled mouth, but she goes on.

"You can't even be here! Do you have any idea what they will do to me? Or to you, if you get caught? I'm going to get in so much trouble…"

Wally, however, listened to her voice but wasn't paying attention to her words. Even if she is surprised and upset, her voice the most beautiful sound to listen. He eyed her dreamily as she ranted about how much trouble they're going to get in. He had missed her so dearly during her suspended animation.

"Okay, Eve, let's take a look," the captain called from across the **BRIDGE**, he and Otto were still reading the book.

_Gasp,_ Eve snapped around instantly at the mention of her name and the very thing she waited for a minute ago. Before she did, she kicked Wally far as she could under the console for him to stay hidden.

The captain reads aloud the procedures, finally being able to decipher the simple pages.

"Let's see here, step one – voice command to ship's computer: 'Confirm acquisition.'"

"_CONFIRM ACQUISITION,_"the computer repeats.

Having heard that, the room springs to activity. Green lights illuminate the ceiling at the center of the lights a cylindrical device emerges. Blue lights scan the **BRIDGE** in a three hundred sixty degree rotation until it locks onto Eve's sample container.

The device maneuvers its way over to Eve on ceiling tracks. Positioning it over her, mechanical arms reach out from the device and snatch the container from the surprised Eve. Then another arm reaches out to an equally baffled captain. It's an audio activation receiver.

"_VOCAL AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED._"

"Uuh..." is his only confused response.

"_Uuh..._" it repeats his response.

_"PATTERN IDENTIFIED: MCCREA, BENJAMIN H. CAPTAIN, __Buy n' Larges' AXIOM;_ _AUTHORIZATION ACCEPTED._"

Another arm lowers from the device, pressing a sequence of codes into the container. The captain winches behind the manual held up to cover his eyes, Wally peeks from the console, even Otto and Gopher await a look, everyone on the **BRIDGE** braces themselves for whatever is inside.

The container's top opens to reveal...

...nothing inside it.

"HUH?" Eve is more shocked to see it empty.

"Huh?" The captain looks even more confused.

"Where's the thingie?"

"Plant, sir," Otto corrects him.

The captain opens the book, unintelligibly searching through it for an answer.

"Plant, right, right. W-Where is it?"

They search through the book, the captain believing they missed a step in a one step procedure.

With their backs turned, Eve looks around for it with her mind racing in confusion. Did it fall out? No, these containers are sealed like safes. She thinks again. Someone must have removed it, it was in her pod with her and no one has seen the plant but her. The only person who possibly could've...

She stops for a second, remembering something. Her thoughts turn from confusion to anger aimed at the only other person who saw the plant before she came back to the ship...

"Wally!"

She turns on him, grabbing him by his collar and yanking him out from under the console.

Wally is frightened with Eve turning against him suddenly, and now she's hurting him, looking for something.

"Where is it? Where is it?" she searches his utility bag, oddly finding just a jumbo size lunch-in-a-cup. Then she searches his pockets, pads down his work suit and searches his hiding spot. Nothing turns up.

"What are you looking for? Eva?" She doesn't pay attention to him. Instead, she riffles through her utility belt, pulling out her holographic-scanner and starts searching everywhere he has been.

"Eva?" he asks innocently.

"Find the plant!" she practically yells at him, making him flinch.

Wally frantically searches plant, to try to calm her down, just as confused as she was. He saw her take the plant from him and she remained frozen the whole time. So how could it just disappear into thin air?

The captain and Otto turn back around. Eve jumps back to her spot at attention, with Wally still looking aimlessly around.

"Lieutenant, did you actually find a plant or are you making this all up?" Otto asks suspiciously.

"No! Not at all, Sir! I-I KNOW I found that plant, it was an** Ailanthus Altissimo**, a Simaroubaceae tree seedling planted in an old boot. I swear on my life I had one in that container!" Eve replied defensively.

"Why don't we scan the inside of the container itself to be sure, it could have fallen out," the captain suggests, Otto pulls out his specialized chip and inserts it into the chamber of the container. Eve waits worriedly.

It pings negative after a couple of seconds.

"Biodegradable analysis shows this pressure sealed container experienced no recent presence of a biological specimen. The only plausible explanation to the lieutenant's claims of her 'missing' plant this is that the lieutenant has not found a plant at all." Eve scoffs at Otto's flat statement.

"So, then...we're NOT going back to Earth?" the captain asks Otto.

"Negative, sir."

"I guess, uh, that means things go back to normal, huh?"

"Correct, captain."

The captain happily closes the manual in his hands, inwardly relieved to stick to the _Axiom._

"Well, false alarm!"

The computer confirms it and the systems return to their usual setting; the arm device retracts into the ceiling and the blast shades retract, flooding the **BRIDGE** with light, everything has returned to the unharmed, normal.

"How could this have happened?" the captain asks Eve for this stir.

"If I may, in all the considerable possibilities to the issue, I conclude either the lieutenant must have misidentified what she thought was a plant, forgot to place it in the container if she even found one in the first place. Or her neural implants must have malfunctioned and caused her to enact the protocol, or lastly, she could just be falsifying all of this," Otto states his opinion.

Eve is losing whatever patience she has against this accusation.

"Excuse me? I would never lie, let alone misidentify a plant. I have an unmatched academic honesty record, I have graduated top of my class in the Extraterrestrial Vegetation Reconnaissance & Evaluation training program. I have mastered the fields of astrobiology, anthropology, agriculture, excavation, microbiology, physiology, AND I have mastered botany to the point I can name every plant, family, order, genus and species from heart! AND about my health: I have surpassed all the physical health screenings before each and every mission! I have never been sick in my life!"

"Then therefore, the only logical possibility left is that you may never have found a plant and must have lied to us, lieutenant. You have an unprecedented foundation of knowledge regarding of evaluating biological life, never committed any academic dishonesty, and are the most physically suitable for the directive. On the contrary, it does not mean you are never completely dishonest or vulnerable to making a mistake or becoming ill, you are human after all. There is no other way for us to verify you are telling us the truth, so just the declaration of your finding in itself is self-explanatory. It could range from a delusional side effect of prolonged suspended animation, or it could be job-induced stress. Besides, though these containers cannot possibly open by force, their encoding subroutines still manipulated with to indicate a positive finding. As for your neural implants, one could also access their interfaces to trigger a protocol command to fabricate a source of proof to justify your acquisition."

Otto's monotone words of his computational reasoning cut Eve off from defending herself further on the truth.

"Then...I guess, she made it up out of stress," the captain slowly understands everything Otto said.

"And regulations state that when it comes to dishonesty, a scout's personal health, and the recolonization protocol, a very serious protocol that changes our way of life no less, it is an act of unhealthy dishonorable conduct, which carries consequences." Otto turns to the captain for a penalty.

"Uh, ya that's true I'm afraid, lieutenant. However, since it could be anything from outright lying or just personal health concerns altogether, I recommend that you are to be sent to the **WARD** for evaluation. Your reconnaissance status and rank shall be revoked until I overrule it otherwise."

Eve's mind dreaded over her sentence: evaluation and demotion. She is to visit the ship's medical center to undergo a series of physical examination plus psychological diagnosis and processing.

"But, Sir, I'm-"

"No 'buts' Evelyn. You WILL undergo the evaluation, and that's an order," the captain said in finality.

Eve slumps down in defeat, confused and angry knowing she's telling the truth, but she is called a delusional liar instead.

"Gofer, go ahead and escort the lieutenant to the **WARD**," the captain orders.

"Aye, captain," Gofer salutes as he takes Eve by her arm to walk her over to the transport.

"Have them run diagnostics on everything from implants to interface, make she isn't—AAAAHH!"

Everyone on the **BRIDGE** jumps in surprise at the captain's surprised yelp.

They look to see him pointing at Wally, obliviously searching around for Eve's plant while hiding right behind her.

Wally froze like a deer in headlights, he been discovered.

An awkward minute of silence passes, before Wally decides to break the ice.

"Hello," he walks innocently up to the still stunned captain and captain his still pointed hand with his biological left hand.

"I'm Wally," half-stuttering.

He lets goes of the captain's hand, leaving a considerable amount of dirt and grime on it.

The captain stares at it, unable to respond, he's never seen dirt before. Otto raises an eyebrow at the strange man before him. Eve looks away, face red in embarrassment.

Otto turns to the baffled captain.

"Do you want me to call security, sir?"

"Uuuh..." he is still trying to identify the contaminants on his hand, and then he answers.

"Have, uh, 'Wally' cleaned."

Otto, just as baffled as the captain, carries out his orders.

"Aye, sir. Chief, escort this gentleman to the **WARD** as well, they'll know what to do."

Gofer grabs a confused Wally and places him in the tram next to Eve, handcuffing him with a pair of energy binders.

Eve has her head in her hands, wondering how much worse Wally can ruin a bad homecoming.


	17. BRIDGE LOBBY part 2

**DISCLAIMER **

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_.

* * *

The typist's mind wondered, her warped task of receptionist duties slowed by the strange man she saw earlier.

The elevator doors to the **BRIDGE LOBBY** opened. Chief Gofer's tram hovers off without giving notice to the typist.

When she looked to see the tram leave, she sees the very strange man she met, his hands bound with energy binders along with an E.V.R.E. scout who sat next to him. The scout didn't seem pleased at all. The man notices the typist and waves at her who enthusiastically waves back. He is the only person kind enough to acknowledge her whenever someone needed to go in or out of the **BRIDGE**. He waves even more as his tram disappears out to the **LIDO DECK**, he has made the typist's day a little brighter.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Wally waves back at the nice woman at the receptionist desk, she was kind enough to not raise the alarm, so he waves her a friendly goodbye, which she happily returns.

As they leave the lobby, he turns his attention to Eve, who looked distant and irritated beyond measure. He didn't know why because he wasn't paying any attention to what she and the tall man were arguing over, he was too busy looking around for the plant she wanted. Whatever it was, Wally hated seeing her look so upset for nothing. He tries to talk her out of her trance, to cheer her up.

"Eva?"

"Do not speak to me."

She didn't even look at him, she's trying to zone out his attempts to get her attention with a warning hint. Wally pressed on to get through to her.

"But, Eva, what's wro-" Eve elbowed him in the side to silence him.

"Ow!" he groaned. She hit him too hard, the force of her augmentative strength practically cracked one of his ribs.

"Shut up!" her voice sharp, and threatening, the anger in her expression looked worse than her combat stare.

Wally gasped at the stabbing pain in his side, and at her response to him. He realized that whatever she was upset over, it must have been something he did very wrong and now it felt worse to see her like this than when she was frozen. He doesn't know what he did wrong exactly, he did what she told him, and he had nothing to do with taking the plant. Why was she taking it all out on him and hurting him?

He sat there in disappointment and with a broken rib. His mind wondering between how in Forthright's name is he going to reconnect with Eve and where the tram was going.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Meanwhile, on the **BRIDGE**, the captain prepared to go to his quarters for the day, to find out what the strange specks left on his hand by that 'Wally' fellow they sent with the lieutenant to the **WARD**.

He stares at the dirt and grime on his hand, wondering how anything this filthy is presently on board such a sterilized starship.

"Weird."

"Sir?" Otto hears him from the helmsman station.

"Oh, its- just this day has been interesting enough, more than any day in that regard. A false plant alarm, and that strange Wally. I've never seen someone like him before."

"Neither have I, sir. I took the liberty to do a manifest search of all possible passenger and crew names. And so far, the name 'Wally' or 'Wallace' or 'Walter' does not appear within any of the ship's records."

"That's very odd. How about where he's from and what is he?"

"I most certainly do not know, captain."

"Hm," the captain tries to speculate any possibility of whom and where he along with these specks came from.

"Oh, well, the **WARD** will let us know further about. I'll be headed down to my room, Otto, you have the con."

"Aye, aye, captain," Otto salutes the captain as his hover chair disappears into the elevator and he returns to the helm.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Down below the **BRIDGE**, the captain activates his personal supercomputer. A giant four foot by eight-foot holographic screen that appears out from a desk-like console similar to the control panels on the bridge.

"Computer, analyze."

The captain places the dirt specks into a circular sample container levitating in light as the computer's Artificial Intelligence scrutinizes it. A nanosecond passes by as the screen brings up teraflops of scientific information and graphic illustrations of the dirt.

"_ANALYSIS: FOREIGN CONTAMINANT. SUBSTANCE IS A THREE-PHASE SYSTEM OF MINERAL BODIES COMPOSED OF VARIOUS COMBINATIONS OF NATURALLY DERIVED SOLIDS..._"

…Even in simple version explanation relay, the computer goes on and on and on. The captain has already zoned out, tired and wanting to stop for the day already. Besides, the **WARD** will bring up information about that 'Wally' and this dirt stuff, hopefully it shouldn't be too boring…

"…_SUBSTANCE IS MORE COMMONLY REFERED TO AS: SOIL, DIRT, DUST, OR EARTH._"

The captain's train of thought came to a complete stand still at that word.

"Earth?"

_These specks of dirt came from Wally, but that meant he must've been from Earth?_

He doesn't mind the uncleanness of dirt aboard his ship, or about how in the universe Wally is on board but rather that _if he_ really is from Earth. It should be impossible for him to be alive but it seemed to be the only logical answer.

He eyes the globe at the corner of his room.

Yes, it has been uninhabitable for centuries and still is, based off the last sketchy report. But Eve did have a point: over long periods of time, a planet or at least a part of it can change.

He has also never seen what Earth really looked like or what true value behind its biological life they keep trying to find. He was just taught about it in grade school, about humanity's heritage from this planet and the known facts of the trash crisis that lead them to where they are today. He wanted to know more about what the secret behind its importance to being life bearing. Sure they have their ships, cramped as they are, but as for a whole planet, what's so special about it?

Perhaps he could look more into it, he mind find something to quell his questioning mind.

"Computer, new search, define: Earth."

The screen goes blank momentarily. New images of land begun to appear, from various farm lands, to fertile mineral soil, food crops, fresh greenery, beautiful plants, misty rainforests, snow-capped mountains, lush wildlife, warm desert sands, landmasses, geologic elements & resources, the biosphere, and dozens upon dozens of other images fill the screen in just seconds. The captain drinks in everything, his curiosity and interest with humanity's home world inflaming.

"'_EARTH' – THE THIRD PLANET IN THE SOL SYSTEM, THE ONLY KNOWN PLANET IN THE UNIVERSE CAPABLE OF SUPPORTING COMPLEX LIFE. THE TERM IS ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE SOLID SURFACE OF THE WORLD, AS DISTINCT FROM THE SKY OR SEA._"

A single image appears before the myriad and colorful display of earth-related topics; this image showed the clear blue oceans, white clouds, and green continents of the planet Earth in all its beauty and glory from orbit, this is what it was meant to be like.

"Wow," the captain is fascinated by the majesty of the blue/green orb floating peacefully in space.

So this is where they came from. Compared to the images of seeing countless outdoor views to the void blackness of space, this is too new and inviting to ignore.

He spots one image that caught his attention. A view from a white sandy beach, overlooking something called the 'sea.'

"Computer, define: Sea," he clicks on the image, more information floods his screen about water, but he is more than content to read it all.

"'_SEA' – A LARGE BODY OF WATER, ALSO A SYNONYM FOR THE TERM 'OCEAN', AN EXPANSE OF SALTWATER THAT COVERS SEVNETY ONE PERCENT OF THE PLANET'S SURFACE, AND SURROUNDS ITS LANDMASSES…_"

The captain stayed glued to his screen unlike others aboard the _Axiom_, he did something productive and educational. This has definitely been a not so boring day for the captain.

* * *

My PERSONAL favorite up next! THE AMERICAN REJECTS! Or is it just THE REJECTS? Anywho, next chapter's right up.


	18. WARD

**DISCLAIMER **

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_.

* * *

Somewhere in the _Axiom'_s **SERVICE LEVELS**, Moe scrubbed and sterilized, scrubbed and sterilized . . . scrubbed and sterilized some more. As he had been doing for the past few hours; it took awhile to do this heavy duty procedure, especially for deep dirt cleaning to obliterate every single microscopic bacterium in footprints.

This was for that dirty man's footprints. He had left his dirty boot tracks running from the **DOCKING BAY** to the service elevator fifty levels up, down the **AFT MAINTENANCE** **CORRIDOR**, Forthright know how much farther that yellow suited man has gone and how much foreign contamination he left behind.

"_FOREIGN CONTAMINANT!_"Moe's heads-up detector repeated for the hundredth-something time.

"I know!" he screamed at his visor's HUD.

He furiously scrubbed harder and harder on every footprint he came across whenever he reminded himself of his directive.

"_FOREIGN CONTAMINANT!_"

"I know! It's disgusting, and I will clean it!"

The HUD repeated the identification of foreign contamination after every few seconds, sights still set on the dirty boot marks and never broke away to see anything else.

Moe cuts across a maglev path line, without looking of course.

"Hey, look out!" the bushy haired Arabian male driver of a freighter screamed, stopping before Moe abruptly. More hover-vehicles crashed into the freighter, a traffic pile up ensues in his wake. The drivers fall out, holding their heads and necks in injury.

"Watch where you're going, kid!" one of them yells.

Moe doesn't pay any mind to them, for he had a duty to fulfill. All he could think about now was where and how far did that dirty man go in this ship. He figured he'll find him soon enough by just keep cleaning his tracks, down to the last footprint and by Forthwright was he going to get the cleaning of his life when Moe finds him!

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

…Moe fails miserably to notice Wally and Eve's tram passing right by him towards the medical center…

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Wally thought he saw a familiar figure zoom right by, even as they were zipping through the maglev paths at high speed.

_Was that the short fellow from the docking bay?_

Eh, doesn't matter, he is more concerned where the tram was going. They have been moving about the path lines from the **BRIDGE** to the '**WARD**' as the captain called it. He eyes Eve from the corner of his peripheral view. They have been sitting in awkward silence for almost an hour. Her angry express only dimmed slightly, still pretty sour towards him. The pain in his side from her elbowing his rib flared up and down as they went on.

Though he set aside his physical injuries, his mind was aching from an hour of contemplating about how he was going to try to speak to Eve again when she doesn't want to speak to him.

He put his head in his hands.

_Oh how much longer until they get to the 'WARD?'_

The hover-tram comes to a stop. Wally's head shoots up to see they have reached a set of doors that read '_AXIOM _**MEDICAL CLINIC AND EVALUATION CENTER**.'

Wally's question answered, they've reached the ship's medical center, or also known as the '**WARD**.'

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

The doors open to reveal a vast, clean-kept facility lined with rows upon rows of individual holding cells.

Wally looks around, each one of the patient holding room's entrances blocked off by transparent force fields. The **WARD** is full of activity. Many sick patients, lots of them were mentally ill patients jumping, bouncing around, goofing off and doctors, orderlies, and other staff members were running around to tend to each one of them.

Two medical doctors in white coats walk up to the tram, greeting Chief Gofer and Eve. She didn't answer back.

One of them pulls out a holographic-data pad.

"Hello, chief, I assume this must be Lieutenant Eve you wanted us to examine?"

"That is correct, doctor, it's a long story but I believe you were already informed about her delusional story up on the **BRIDGE**."

The doctor begins typing into his pad.

"Yes, we received all that and we will run a few tests to find out if it's any psychosis to worry about. And whom may be this gentleman?" he points toward Wally.

"We're not sure, but we believe he is an unregistered passenger, he says his name is 'Wally.' The first officer relayed more information that stated he does not exist on this ship or in any of our records."

"He is an unregistered passenger without legitimate identity?'" one of the staff asked.

"Yes, he also managed to sneak up into the **BRIDGE**, which is a major security breach. Therefore, we sent him here for confinement until notified otherwise. The captain also said he wanted him to be 'cleaned.'"

"I see, well we shall see to it to run a DNA analysis to find out who he is, and to give him a bath, hahaha," the doctor chuckles at Wally's filthy appearance, he felt a little offended. The doctor types something into his data pad and two red holographic arm straps appeared out of the data pad.

"Well, sir, go ahead and leave them with us and well send the captain some results regarding these two."

"Thank you, doc," with that done, Gofer forces Wally and Eve off the tram and he departs the medical center.

The doctors place an irremovable red arm strap around Eve's right arm. It's a psychiatric patient identification strap to let others know who she is and that she belongs here, a form of a tracking device.

"Alrighty, Lieutenant Eve, come with me." One doctor takes her over to another room, giving her a sedative injection for the examination. Wally grows worried when he sees this, tries to call out to her.

"Eva!"

The other doctor starts on him.

"Okay, 'Mr. Wally,' let's get started." He tries to give Wally his strap and his injection; Wally panics, tries to brush off the doctor.

"G-G-Get away from me!"

"Hey! Stand still, I'm not going to hurt you," he tries to strap Wally again but he keeps resisting.

"Ugh, don't be so difficult!" He almost wrestles to get his arm bandage on. Wally is just too afraid of what they were going to do to him.

"Ah, forget this, maybe a sedative will get to stop flailing around!" he pulls out his syringe, Wally goes wide eyed scared.

Just as the doctor tried to get a clear shot at injecting Wally, he kicks the doctor's hand, forcing the needle into the doctor's neck instead.

"OW! Oh god! That really, REALLY. . . reallyyy . . . hurrrrrrr . . . ooooohhhhhhhhhhh..." He falls to the floor unconscious. Wally runs off into the **WARD** after Eve.

Wally is suddenly stopped in his tracks by a crazed, pink-dye haired teenage female with light blue eyes, large earrings, wearing a Buy n' Large beautician wannabe jumpsuit, beautician tools in hand, and she seemed to be either too high on sugar or having a mental breakdown. She aimlessly applied cosmetic makeup on Wally's face at incredible speed.

"What can I do for ya? Aaahh, jjjjjjjust a t-trim? Just a trim? A trim? Trim? Uh-huh!"

Wally tried to break free from this mad woman, but her white powdery make up brushes kept getting in his eyes, which burned like hell.

She stopped her frantic applying and holds up a mirror to Wally's face.

"You look gorgeous sweetheart!"

Wally gasped at the hideous sight of himself with lipstick, mascara, foundation, rouge eye shadow and white powder applied all over his face, even over his glasses so freakish on himself he almost giggled. He turns to the crazy woman looking at him half-insane/half-pleading for a response.

"I-It-It looks…really good," he replied nervous yet generously, not wanting to hurt her feelings about her misapplying, not that she applied cosmetics on a guy.

Two orderlies suddenly grabbed Wally by the arms, dragging him to a holding cell.

"H-Hey! Let me go!"

"You can play Barbie with Perdie the crazy kook later, as soon as she takes some cosmetic lessons," one of them laughed at the beautician as they dragged Wally away, Perdie broke down in tears when she heard them.

"Hey, that's not very nice!" he told the two men dragging him.

The two orderlies ignored Wally as they pushed him into a tiny room.

"The doctor will be along here shortly, hopefully as soon as he wakes up from the little coma you just put him into. You will be given a genetic examination…and one heck of a bubble bath, hahaha!"

As they walked away laughing, a blue force field seals Wally in.

"Let me out!" He angrily demands, pounding on the transparent wall.

He turns around to see two other patients in the confined quarters, both had red arm bands like he did.

One a hyperactive carpenter coated with paint stained all over his white jumpsuit, face and unruly hair, holding a multicolor-select paintbrush. He mumbled to himself and was stroking color after color wildly and illegibly on the wall, his brushes so fast that paint spots get splashed on Wally.

The other patient a dust-covered, curly haired, brown eyes janitor wearing dark blue jumpsuit and had a backpack mounted vacuum cleaner and an extendable broom/mop. He seemed to be down with a cold, for he wheezed and coughed, before Wally can ask who they were, the janitor sneezed. Dust and spittle sprays all over Wally.

Wally scrubs his face hard, to get all the dust, paint, spit, and make up off.

"Uh-aw," the janitor coughed.

"I-I-I-I'm tho thowy about that," the janitor apologized, his accent affected by a stuffy nose and his diminished English. He must be handicapped too.

"I-It's alright." Wally finished wiping off his glasses.

"I'm Victor Hoover, but evwey body jus' callth'me Hoover becuth I . . ." he coughs again.

". . . vacuum a lot."

"My name is Wally," he shakes Hoover's hand.

Hoover points to the crazed painter.

"And that'th Vingo, he liketh to paint'th alt'th, but he geth a little too crathy without nothing to paint."

"I see." Wally looks outside the transparent force field.

"What is this place?" he asked Hoover.

"It'th a bad pwath, you go hea when you'a thick and need to get betther, but the doctherth' are mean an they make fun'vuth," the janitor replied with his stuffed up nosed and speech impediment.

Wally looked around. Cells filled with handicapped patients wearing the red arm strap. Each cell specifically designated for a certain diagnosis the doctors addressed by profiling out the patients. There was a cell full of '_Self-Abused_' patients hitting themselves with objects. Another cell titled _'Obsessive-Compulsives_' with tennis servers and golfers hitting balls in random directions.

The one cell that got Wally's attention were the '_Volatile_' patients, one massager named Hans flailed his arms and legs in all directions, spinning and slamming his fists into other patients and staff members, drawing blood from them in a blind rampage, a human Tasmanian devil. Ten orderlies rush into his cell, struggling furiously to pin him to the floor. Before he could break free of them, one staff member straps an energy-binding straitjacket, restraining him securely. He still resisted, trying to attack the orderlies. They pull out an electroshock baton, stunning him to subdue him. They half laughed in relief and mocking of his bloodlust.

Wally was stunned at how cruel these medical doctors and staff can be to these handicapped patients, by beating, mocking, and labeling them.

The energy barrier to '_Foreign Contamination_' where Wally was held deactivates. The same doctor that tried to sedate Wally wore a bandage over his neck entered.

"All right, Wally, before I can bathe you and 'repay' you for putting me into a little nap!…" he hissed, clearly mad.

"…I need to take a few tissue samples for your DNA profiling analysis upon the captain's orders."

He reactivates the force field, pulling out a needle to extract blood sample.

Wally backs away from the doctor.

"It's okay, I just need to take a sample, it won't hurt you, I promise," the doctor coldly replies.

Wally reluctantly offered his left arm, as the doctor takes the needle and inserts it into Wally's vein. At that exact moment, Wally notices Eve being escorted behind a fogged glass door, to the: **DIAGNOSTICS AND EVALUTION** room.

"EVAH!" he shouts as the doctor extract's Wally's blood.

"Oh, get over it you big wuss!" the doctor replies.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Eve sat on one of the hospital beds in the '_Diagnostics and Evaluation_' room. She looked around the big, circular room with individual exam stations. Each had a bed, a table, and a rack of state-of-the-art medical equipment and tools. The giant fogged, glass door offered them semi-privacy but the medical stations and patients were openly visible. There were several tests being conducted around here. One human in the station next to her, a woman with a fetish for umbrellas screamed her head off as doctors tried to take an umbrella from her, they back off and the human calms down. In another station, a female emergency medical technician with stress induced panic attacks tried properly deify a crash test doll.

"C-cccc-Clear! CLEAR!" She closes her eyes and places the defibrillator on the dolls face, catching fire.

Eve felt embarrassed to be here. She couldn't stand to be around these-these... rejects. They were far down the ladder as borderline retarded menial workers. She is a hundred eighty intelligent Extraterrestrial Vegetation Reconiassance & Evaluation scout for Forthright's sake, the best of the best. She was practically humiliated to be here because she told the truth, she _saw _the plant and even brought it _with_ her but the fates were against her for no explanatory reason and reduced to a section eight.

There is no way she could be brought down to this level in need of psychological evaluation; which will permanently go into her records, thereby tainting her flawless service. That misconduct of her duty could end up with at the very least an emendation if not a court marshal. Worse, if word gets out and it probably will, her crewmembers and friends will spread gossip of her for the deceit in the most hush-hush of tasks of searching Earth. Especially if they see her in this very room full of degenerates, she'll be labeled as one of them. She will be isolated and ridiculed behind her back for the rest of her natural life.

She cursed Commander Otto for sending her here. Cursing the captain for being convinced by that oh-so-smart and uptight first officer to order her to be sent here. She cursed the idea of nobody believing they would ever find a plant at the point they stopped believing in finding a habitable planet.

Most of all, she cursed Wally for causing all her troubles from somehow stealing and losing the plant to her ending up with the consequences of a false alarm.

No matter how she wondered on how in the cosmos he got onboard this ship and why, she was going to make him pay dearly for this humiliating evaluation.

"Alrighty, Lieutenant Eve…" a naval psychopathologist prepares her testing, gathering his neural equipment and gloves.

"…Let's see if we can figure out what's up with you today."

"Like I said before, I am not losing my mind!" she annoyingly denies.

"I understand you don't want to do this, lieutenant, but we can only be sure you are clean by a full physical diagnosis."

Eve sighs, he's right.

"Oh, alright, fine. Let's just get it over with." Of course, even though she knew she wasn't crazy or lying, they had to know somehow.

"Okay then, let's start with a physical."

Without a word, Eve takes off her utility belt, plasma rifle, antigravity boots and torso piece, setting them down on the station entrance table. Then she strips off her nanotech-suit, down to her white satin undergarments, revealing the perfectly tuned light skin of her tight athletic body, feminine muscle curvatures more alluring without the suit. After that, she reluctantly takes off her bra, her supple breast's small pink nipples shone in all their beauty and glory.

The doctor feels her body up and down with an empathetic look on his face, checking by running his gloved hands along her skin, inspecting for any cryogenic frostbites or abnormalities with her catalytic thyroid augmentation, or in other words, any deformities with her skeletal or muscle growth alteration. Eve blushes when she now knows she is practically standing nude and is being touched in front of a male naval doctor in an almost sexual manner but he is a doctor nonetheless, and it's his job for these kind of things no matter how awkward it seemed.

"Okay, no freezer burn, elephantiasis, or runaway marrow growths. Now lets check your senses."

He pulls out an eyesight test card with variable size letters. Eve tests each eye and reads off every single letter accurately with her enhanced 20/10 vision. Then he pulls out a U-shaped metal stick, after a tiny flick of it, Eve's hyper-tuned hearing detects it.

"Visual acuity and sonic reception checks out. Let's take a look a look at your neural implants."

He pulls out a cable from a medical console and gestures Eve to tilt her head forward. The examiner rifles her hair out of the way to reveal a tiny, biodegradable data-port size of a dime, surgically implanted into the base of Eve's skull that wirelessly links to her cerebral cortex's networking interface

The examiner inserts the sharp-looking cable into the data-port similar to how people get plugged into the Matrix…

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

…Wally watched Eve's silhouette through the fogged glass as his doctor extracted Wally's blood and skin samples, even a retinal memory scan. Now he tries to take a hair follicle from Wally's scalp to complete the DNA collection for analyzing.

_What are they doing to her? _Wally wondered when he sees her undress and another silhouette of a doctor blocks his view of her, moving all around Eve and pulling out some of his tools. When he pulls out some kind of cabled sharp tool, Wally becomes uneasy.

The silhouette then takes the tool and appears to stab Eve in the back of the head with it.

"Oh my god! Eva!"

Wally shoots up, accidentally hitting the doctor in the face with the back of his head, knocking him unconscious …

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

…With the cable inserted, Eve felt nauseous and invaded of having a foreign ungodly object probing her brain.

The examiner types a few commands in the console, preparing for a full scan of her neural sensual chip's condition and her emotional-petrochemical physiology.

"Alright, just stay still, this may feel a bit weird, but it's ticklish."

He taps the final command, the cable lights up as artificial bioelectricity process and feedback signals into her brain, the foreign sensations in her mind trigger endorphin stimulation, causing her to go into a giggling fit.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAH! STOP! HAHAHA! THAT-HAHA-TICKLES! HAHAHA!

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

"Come on, Bella, give me that!" At the station, a doctor finally manages to yank the umbrella from the woman's hands.

"No! NO!..." she screams like a childish brat.

In her obsessive-compulsive disorder, she lets out an eardrum-tearing banshee screech of torment as her umbrella is confiscated.

**"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…"**

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

…From outside, Wally is terrified by the sound of Eve's 'screaming.' His eyes widen in horror when he sees her form light up, if she was being shocked. He couldn't believe what was happening to her, she is being tortured and she screamed in unspeakable agony, as if she was dying!

"EVA!"

Wally frantically tries to find a way out of the cell, looking for ways to deactivate the barrier. He has to stop this madness and save her!

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

…The examiner pulls out the cable from Eve's neural data port.

"Well, you're not suffering from any of the augmentation side effects or any space adaptation syndrome nor do I find any indication of cryogenic induced delusions or any forms of task-related stress, and you don't appear to be making any information up notwithstanding by lying."

Eve still giggled from the testing side effects, it almost hurt to continue laughing but it felt pretty good.

"Hahaha, I-I-Haha-I-I-told you! Haha…" she continued to laugh, half-ticklish/half-relieved she was medically proven right that she wasn't lying.

"Well, lieutenant, it's odd that Commander Otto would send you here for something that you didn't do."

"I know," Eve finished her giggle fit.

"I knew I found something and brought it back with me in person. I never make stories up or misidentify something I know to look for. The plant I had was most likely…no, _was_, stolen and lost from me…" she referred to Wally, who still is not going to escape her wrath even after her euphoric test session.

"Alright then Eve, just one last thing before clearing you . . . as a regulation for the Extraterrestrial Vegetation Reconnaissance & Evaluation health protocol and that of the _Axiom'_s disease-free environment, I need to give you your immunity induction vaccine."

"Oh, great." Eve knew what that meant, this is going to hurt.

Eve lies down on her stomach on the hospital bed. Holding her breath, the doctor pulls out a pneumatic injector that shoots super T-cells into her body for resistance against unearthly diseases.

He holds up the device to the side of her buttocks and injects the vaccine with a hiss of air in a similar procedure for earlier dated Tetanus shots.

"OOWW! THAT HURTS!..."

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

…From outside, at an angle, Wally could make out Eve's silhouette through the fogged glass. She was awkwardly positioned belly down, rear end high against the standing doctor. Eve lets out an audible scream as the doctor moves awkwardly against her, as if sexual-

Wally's mind almost stopped functioning at the unbelievable realization of what the doctor appeared to be doing to her.

She was undressed, stabbed in the head, shocked, tortured, and, and, and…and now violated?

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Wally pulls out his cutting laser from his prosthetic arm and slices the force field emitters. It short-circuits as Wally cuts vital wiring, the barrier deactivating. With his weight leaning on it, Wally falls to the ground, landing on his cassette player and clicking the play button for 'Put On Your Sunday Clothes.'

Everyone in the medical center stopped and stares at the sound of the blaring music. Wally gets up and runs toward the diagnostic room with all haste.

"I'LL SAVE YOUUUU, EEEVAAHHHH!"

He shouts at the top of his lungs, charging the glass doors like a runaway train and prepares all his strength to crash through, he must save the one he loves most!…

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

…The doctor finishes Eve's injections. Finally, Eve is cleared of her diagnosis and can now prove herself to Commander Otto. The examiner turns to Eve, he just has to sign her off.

"Okay, Eve, you're all do-"

CRASH!

The glass door shatters into a million shards, Eve and the doctor jump in shock then confusion at hearing the sound of Hello Dollymusic.

"What the hell?" Eve knows that music, she turns over to see Wally lying on the floor in broken shards, groaning, the glass harder than he thought.

"WALLY?" He is the last person she expected to do something like this.

Wally shoots up from the ground, spotting Eve's plasma rifle on the console table, he picks it up and starts pointing it at all the doctors, trembling in sharp pain of broken glass in his skin and in uncertainty of his actions.

"STAY BACK! YOU! LET HER GO NOW OR I'LL SHOOT!"

Everyone in the diagnostics room froze in shock and fear, so was Eve. Wally turns to her, the gun pointed at everyone else, still shaking.

"Eva! Are you ok? Did they hurt you? Did they violate you?"

The stares turn to Eve. She realizes he charged into here after her and held people hostage in misunderstanding for her. She felt embarrassed the attention centered on her.

"Wally, put the gun down! I'm getting a medical exam! What are you doing here?" she yelled.

"I saw from outside these people torturing you, I came …to rescue…you…" his words trailed off, he stopped shaking, serious face turning to that of confused after taking another look around.

"Oh," he notices all the medical equipment and Eve's appearance, she had no injuries or any inflicted wounds he thought.

His mouth agape and is awestruck when noticing Eve's lack of clothing. She is far more beautiful than he ever saw her with her nano-suit on: the tenderness of Eve's bare skin and her tight body sparkled in his vision, not a single visible scar or imperfection on her. She is, with a lack of better words: _Spectacularly gorgeous_.

He fustily failed to control his gaze as it locks on to Eve's exposed torso, particularly her perfectly size breasts. They are not too small or too big and the tiny nipples poked out in the cold air of the lab. He stood frozen in place as he drinks in the image of the unknown to him yet _very_ attractive features of her front, how little those satin panties covered and the seductive curves of her legs, hips, waist, and arced back sent shockwaves of unfamiliar sensations throughout Wally's body. An embarrassing tingle of something growing was felt in his lower region and naughty thoughts raced through his mind, he felt a near insuppressible urge to just touch her, feel every square inch of her to satisfy a power natural instinct threatening to take over him at the first sight of something impossibly beautiful. He has _never_ seen the naked body of a woman before...

Eve catches Wally staring at her funny, along with everyone else in the diagnostics lab. The cold chill on Eve's skin finally makes her remember she wasn't wearing any clothing.

Then it hits her.

**"EEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKK!"**

Eve's ungodly shriek echoes throughout the lab, making everyone jump in shock and surprise. Not just everyone sees her nude but Wally!

She covers up her exposed breasts and as much of her body with her arms feeling unclean with everyone looking at her. Eve's face turned scarlet pink.

"LOOK AWAY YOU PERVERT!"

"AAAH!" Inflicted with immeasurable terror by the sound of Eve, Wally instantly looks away in fear and in shame of his act of immodesty, he just saw Eve naked!

"I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY!" He hysterically apologizes, cursing himself for just eyeing her over!

The situation hasn't improved when the staff in the WARD sees Wally with a weapon at hand.

"LOOK OUT! HE'S GOT A GUN!"

Taking the opportunity Wally has his back turned, an orderly lungs for him. Wally turns around to see him coming. It happened too fast to hesitate! Panicking, he brings up the plasma rifle to the orderly with his eyes closed.

"NNNNNOOOOO…" Eve lungs for the gun, Wally pulls the trigger!

A burst of superheated plasma shoots out the wrong way.

Wally realizes too late that he held the gun backwards! The ionized gas projectile streaks across the **WARD**, directly hitting the facility power generator. It explodes in a shower of sparks, white-hot debris and plasma residue.

Everyone in the medical facility stares at the damage slack-jawed. They all turned their sights in the direction of who fired the shot, and the naked woman next to said person.

"Uuuoooooohhh…" Wally's mind froze in fear, he shrunk down where he stood, silencing his still playing cassette player.

"...Oops." That's it, he's done it now…

Eve's face literally crimson red in embarrassment. Everyone stared at her naked form just stopped just before Wally, froze when she saw her efforts to stop him were in vain. Now she inadvertently exposed her body with a arched back sticking her rear end in the air in a teasing angle. No man's eyes could be unglued from her nude form.

"Wooow, pwetty wady…" A small whistle escapes from one of the '_Foreign Contamination_' patients. Her face turned an impossible red, an expression mixed with insurmountable humiliation…and rage.

"WALLY! YOU IDIOT!"

A fist flew through the air, Eve's fist, about to collide with one poor target.

Before Wally knew Eve punched him square in the face, he flew across the diagnostics lab and slammed into the plastic steel wall, putting a body shaped dent in it, feeling he been hit by two flying brick walls. First by her fist and then with a wall itself followed by a third after falling face first on the floor.

His face felt it was on fire, his nose broken and bleeding profusely, at least she didn't cave in his skull. Miraculous enough his glasses or teeth didn't shatter and fly away nor did the plasma rifle in his hand.

Eve stood there, her teeth and fists clenched tight, drawing blood and trembling violently. Her breathing was heavy huffing and puffing, a fiery gleam in her eye, like an angry demonic woman. Every ounce of her felt fury, humiliation and annoyance, all pointed towards one stupid, cowering, and helpless garbage man.

An electric noise startles Eve.

The doors to the **EVALUATION WARD** whooshed open, all the force fields to the holding cells deactivated. The consoles and lights go out with a powering down whine. All the inmates and staff look at each other puzzled, the facility power generator must have short circuited from the blast.

Hoover broke the silence.

"WE'A FWEE!"

After another pause…

…the entire medical facility breaks into chaos. All patients rushed out into the Ward, cheering in sheer joy by tackling the doctors, staff, and orderlies before they can respond. Eve is left astonished when she watches the ensuing disarray.

"YAY! WAWWY! YOU FWEED UTH!" The mob of freed inmates turned towards the diagnostics lab. They run through the broken glass, shattering it more and running over the doctors.

"Eth'cuth me, mean pwetty wady!" Hoover and Vingo brushes Eve aside as everyone else rushes towards Wally.

Wally was even more confused. His senses were painfully sparkly and dazzled after just being hit hard by Eve and now he's being lifted off the floor by hundreds of patients onto their shoulders.

"THWEE CHEERTH' FOR WAWWY!" Hoover and Vingo exclaim.

"Hiphip, HORAY!" everyone cheers as they all charge out the entrance with their savior.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Out on the floor, the doctor who performed Wally's DNA exam woke up from unconsciousness for the second time.

"Oooh, my head! What hap-" before he could finish his sentence, he was run over by the stampede of patients. That's the third time he was knocked out today. Wally's DNA samples have survived, which he would examine later, as soon as he regains consciousness once more.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Eve is left in the medical **WARD** by herself, astounded and incredulous of the ensuing disaster caused by Wally. The day keeps getting worse and worse. As if to prove her point, the alarms sounded soon as the mob crosses the entrance line, their red arm strap tracking devices lighting up Soon all of the ship's security forces will respond to the outbreak. That meant sooo... much trouble.

Eve gets dressed as fast as she can, putting her underwear, nano-suit, and utility belt back on but Wally still has her plasma rifle. Her peeping fiasco with hitting him fueled her drive to fly out after the mob, after Wally. To keep that nuisance from hurting himself or someone, for he is danger incarnate, a court marshal career ender and the death of her just waiting to happen.

* * *

For those who have not seen the movie or not read the original story that are confused about the robotic characters in human form in reference to the film's repair ward scene. The humanized names are in uppercase, italic bold with the robot title in parenthesis bold followed by short description:

**_ORDERLIES AND DOCTORS_ = mechanical arms of the repair ward  
**

**_PERDIE _(PR****-T)= a beautician bot**

**_[VICTOR] HOOVER _(VAQ****-M)= a vacuum cleaner bot **As a note, "Hoover" is another name for the vacuum cleaner**  
**

**_VINGO _(VN-****GO)= a painting bot**

_**HANS**_** (HAN-S) = a masseuse bot**

_**BELLA **_**(B****-RLA)= an umbrella bot**

**_EMERGENCY MEDICAL TECHNICIAN _(D****-FIB)= the defibrillator bot**

Sure hope that clears all questions of who's who! Enjoy the next chapter!


	19. Of the Wanted and the Revolt

**DISCLAIMER  
**

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_.

* * *

The ship's security network was a beehive of activity. Stewards, the police/servants of the _Axiom_, were mobilizing in response to the **WARD** outbreak.

The stewards are all genetically engineered clones of each other, created for the purpose of having an obedient, and mass produced multitasking crew force. They each had the same cloned DNA, equal height, equivalent physical features, matching uniforms, the same voices and even their personalities were alike. The only differences among themselves were assigned ranks.

A squad of twenty men armed for riot control ran down the **AFT MAINTENANCE** pathways at high speed, ordering aside all other maglev traffic. A steward sergeant came over the intercom earpieces of the on-the-move peace officers, briefing them.

**_"Code 5150, I repeat, we have a Code 5150 in progress! The Medical Center has been compromised by a recent psychiatric patient outbreak. Reports have stated that the inmates have overwhelmed the orderly staff and disabled the facility defenses after a destroying the local power grid, triggering the alarm. All of the 351 registered patients have escaped and are being tracked via their homing straps. ALL of them are now roaming the Primary Maintenance Corridor together. BE ADVISED: Use extreme caution, for one of the inmates is armed with a plasma-based weapon and extremely dangerous. Your priority is to find this detainee and arrest him or her. Then take control of the escapees as soon as possible before any more public or crew disorder ensues! Understood?"_**

"AFFIRMATIVE, SIR, WE ARE OSCAR-MIKE!" They all replied in a unison voice as they made their way towards the breached medical facility.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

The psychiatric rejects stampeded their way across the service corridor, cheering everyone they came across and looting everything in their way. Maglev freight lines came to a halt, reversed, even toppled over in the face of over three hundred wildly running inmates.

Wally didn't know if he should be confused, scared, or excited. The blurry side effects of being punched in the face still dazzled him enough to think slowly of what's going on around him. He was right smack in the middle of disturbing the peace and the commotion caused sounded serious. He must be in very big trouble. It felt good these people are now roaming free because of him feeing these people from those sadistic doctors of the **WARD**.

The mob of celebrating patients makes a hard left around a corner.

"HALT!" A unison voice command echoes throughout the hall.

The mob stops so suddenly, Wally falls off their shoulders and lands hard on his bottom, still clasping Eve's plasma rifle.

"Oh my!" Perdie gasped as she and the rest of the mob stopped dead in their tracks, frozen in fear.

Wally looked up to see row upon row of at least twenty of identical Kevlar-clad armored stewards, forming a man-barrier. They each have a flat palm stretched out, ordering them to stop. Wally froze in the same fear, he is outnumbered and being approached with force by THESE people he is in very, _VERY_ big trouble. Wally's hands and knees shook, he hides face behind the plasma rifle like a guilty child facing an accusing parent.

With their rebellious drive all but destroyed and reverted, the mob tries to separate them from Wally in order to be spared whatever punishment.

"Uh…he did it!" Hoover and the rest of the mob stepped back, pointing at Wally. The stewards look back at him, finally noticing the plasma rifle.

"You! Surrender your weapon!" The lead steward commands Wally, pulling out his stun gun. The other stewards place their hands over their own weapons, ready to electrify Wally on the spot if he even twitches.

Wally cowers before the unmoved stewards.

_Why me?_

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Eve rushes down the rioted maglev pathways the mob traversed. Her mind boiling mad that Wally could stupidly cause so much havoc. He stole her weapon that inadvertently released highly unstable people. He got several people injured and many vehicles destroyed.

_What's that idiot gonna do next?_

She turns a corner and finds the mob had stopped, along with Wally, who sat helplessly on the floor. She has him, now she can end all this and nothing worse can ruin her day.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

All the patients were pushed out of the way hard, Wally is surprised to see Eve pop out and start after him.

"Wally! You give me that gun, NOW!" she angrily pries the weapon from his grasp. He backs up from her, for she looked mad, which goes noticed by the lead steward.

She must be the now armed and rather extremely dangerous detainee they are after.

"You, citizen! You are in violation of the _Axiom_ Peace Code, cease your hostility at once!"

Eve was busy ranting at Wally, the steward shouts again.

"Citizen! This is your final warning! Cease hostility at once or you will be subject for arrest!"

Eve, too ignorant of the stewards and angry with Wally, pistol-whips him with her rifle, her very undoing out of anger. The steward taps the mounted earpiece camera, focusing on the aggravated and aggressively poised Eve. She hoists her plasma rifle in a threatening manner. Wally and the reject mob look fear-stricken in the image. She looked like she has them hostage.

The steward takes the snapshot…

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

"_WANTED: ROGUE FUGITIVES._"

In an instant, her photo presented itself on every holographic screen throughout the _Axiom_, from each advertisement, every direction sign, every deck, every hall, every room, even to every hover chair.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

…her photo appears on the data pads of the stewards. The ship's computer echoes the rogue human warning. Eve sees the picture of her holding Wally and the mob at gunpoint. Eve can't believe she made herself look like a violent criminal. They are now going to arrest her.

Her mind pushed past its limits, the indescribable anger for the turn of events has her growling and fiery eyed at Wally, sending shivers down his spine. Today has turned for the worst, indirectly because of him making her seem so violent.

"WALLY!" She is about to turn on him when the lead steward barks his orders to the squad.

"She is deemed dangerous, arrest her immediately!" they ready their tractor beam binders.

Eve realizes what's about to happen. She grabs Wally by the collar, activating her antigravity boots and flies pass them at neck breaking speeds. The stewards are all knocked over by the shockwave of Eve's sudden departure.

The reject patients are amazed by what Wally and the pretty woman just did. They stood up against stewards! If the one who freed them could do it, so could they!

"WE'A FWEE! LE'TH REVOLT! REVOLT!" Their drive to rebel has returned! They take the sign as Hoover charges past the stunned stewards.

All hell broke loose. The rejects storm in all directions, spreading anarchy wherever they go.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Eve navigates the pathways best she can, without trying to hit anything. She flew pass freighters and crewmembers now recognizing her 'wanted' image and pointed her out. As she flies passed obstacles, scrapping and beating Wally along the way. Eve doesn't pay any mind if he gets hurt, she's too furious at him and too busy escaping to think. Even though she's moving fast, she can't outrun the rejects and stewards in these tight turn halls, the tattling crew around her weren't helping.

A split-second moment to think, she dives into a viewport…

... Hoover, Vingo, Perdie, Bella, Hans, the emergency medical technician and the others reached a three-way intersection, where they lost track of their savior.

"Uuuuh, thi'th way!" They headed in a random direction, the stewards in hot pursuit and a wake of destruction as escapees and crews brawl in the corridors.

Eve peeks out from the viewport they ducked behind. They lost their pursuers. She sat there for a moment, clutching Wally's mouth to silence him and contemplating her next course of action but she's having a hard time thinking straight. Eve's day has reached a new low despite all impossibility from called crazy to being peeped, and now a wanted criminal.

_All because of this stupid! Dim-wit! Dyspraxia Wally!_

Her thoughts subconsciously made her clutch Wally's mouth harder the angrier she got. His pained muffles of protest distracted her.

"QUIET!" she harshly whispers.

She looks outside the viewport to see they were near the ship's docking bay and entry & evacuation decks lined with emergency escape modules.

_Wait!_ Eve gets an idea that might solve all her problems, or at least her biggest one. She picks up Wally and heads for the nearest turbo lift.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Wally rode the elevator uncomfortably next to Eve, while keeping a hand over a swelling bruise on his head from her pistol-whip. The tension in the air extremely thick that Wally could feel the anger radiating off her and her face hasn't changed from the hate filled beautiful blue eyes ever since they left the ward, like she was going to kill him any second. The silence between them becomes more and more unbearable with each passing second. He felt he had to do something to break the ice. He wanted something to happen than rather wait to be snuffed out by Eve.

"_WANTED: ROGUE FUGITIVES!_" Their 'wanted' image appears on the screen in front of them. Oblivious to what it meant, he's excited to see himself and Eve on TV, who knows, it might make her the least bit happier.

"Ohh, Eva, look! We're on televisio-"

Without warning, Eve rockets her bare fist into the projector screen. Wally yelps in shock as the screen explodes into a shower of sparks and glass/metal shards. She puts a dent in the wall and bloodies her fist. Eve is way beyond infuriated, mad, enraged or crazed.

She is ticked off . . . at him.

Wally shrinks down to the floor as far away from her as he can, for he dare not make eye contact with the worsening angry expression of Eve. This is the worst day of his life, the one he cares so dearly for seemed about to pulverize him at any given moment, to make it his last day also.

He looks back up at the destroyed screen, thinking he hopefully won't die too painfully...

* * *

**FUN FACT! **The term "Oscar Mike" is a term in the military meaning "on the move." Ignoring "the," the phrase comes from the respective words in the NATO alphabet for O and M, forming "Oscar Mike." It is used most by the _**United States Army Rangers**_ and occasionally the **_SAS _**or **_Task Force 141_ **during Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.


	20. AxIoM eScApE vEhIcLe

**DISCLAIMER **

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_.

* * *

Wally and Eve turbo lift stops at the main **BOARDING & EVACUATION** levels of the _Axiom_. The elevator doors open and Eve stepped out, wordlessly guides Wally through the barely lit hallways. The air smelled stale and dust coated every surface. They end up in a vast corridor lined with bright emergency doors. The door they approach slides open as if for the first time, creating a slight screeching sound as its unused gears and railing grind together. Eve enters the dark room with a lone control panel like the hallways of this level, the room's old, dusty atmosphere meant that no one, crew, passengers or even maintenance have accessed these areas in a long, long time.

Eve approaches the console and begins to fiddle with its controls, trying to get it up and running again. Wally watches her from behind, wondering where she led him and what she was going to do with him.

He was confused, wasn't she going to smash his skull in, back in the elevator as if she did to that projector screen? She seems angrier than ever before, and as much as he knows Eve, she would usually destroy anything that annoyed her in the most peculiar, instantaneous ways, usually by brute force or just blasting her nuisances on the spot. So why are they here of all places?

Nothing made sense today. A lot of the confusion was Eve centric in particular ever since she was surprised beyond words when she saw him after awakening from cryonic sleep. She turns on him for no reason, after the **WARD**, it all went downhill, causing more unintentional harm to himself and to her. Whatever the reason, Wally couldn't stand to continue seeing Eve like this, he wanted to do something, anything to banish her anger and make her happy again.

He'll do anything.

His gaze lowers to her bloodied hand limp at her side. Wally could see her wince slightly as she tried to move her fingers. He thinks back to Hello Dolly,remembering of the gesture he has all but forgotten. He held his own hands together as gently has his prosthetic and biological fingers allowed. The feel of his hands felt somehow better, full and caring. He looks back at Eve's hand. Maybe he could just hold hers, to ease her pain and make her feel cared for, a way of healing or some sort. It occurs to Wally this must be the right moment to hold hands.

Yes! He will take her hand, and calm her down by telling her everything he came across the galaxy for...

The room springs to life before he could speak though. Ceiling lights activate to reveal an evacuation bay. Yellow emergency directory arrows lit up on the deck and the walls, all pointed to an opened hatch at the end of the room, into the bright interior of an _Axiom_ escape pod. Inside were a circle of twenty crash-harness seats, terrestrial survival gear and emergency extra-vehicular activity equipment. Outside the view screen on each side were rows upon rows of thousands of escape pods lined the outer hull of the _Axiom_.

Eve turns to Wally, her expression blank like she knows what he's going to do next but he doesn't, Wally looks between her and the hatch, wondering what to do.

"Get in," Eve points to the escape pod. Wally's slow to understand, looking between her and the escape pod, why did she need him in there?

Eve figured Wally didn't understand, she was too impatient to clarify everything for him, but she tries to remain calm and explain simple.

"I said 'get in.' It's going to Earth." She points to the screen above them to show him. It projected a celestial map and the coordinates to Earth from the _Axiom._

Wally looks in between the hatch and the screen.

"OH! Umm...ok," he finally understands and happily strides into the pod as Eve told him to; so they're going to take the _e_scape pod back to Earth. Wally couldn't believe it. His luck has turned for the better. They are going home, so he thinks.

He takes a seat, clasping his hands expectantly and patiently like an obedient schoolchild. He looks back to see Eve still at the entrance, she doesn't seem in any bit fazed of leaving.

"Well…are you coming?" he pats the seat beside him.

She shakes her head as calm as she can.

"No, I am not."

"Huh?" Wally's enthusiasm for a homecoming suddenly vanished.

_What? She's not coming?_

"W-W-Why not?" He grows uneasy.

Eve shakes her head again. She couldn't grasp the idea of how Wally was so oblivious to all her confusing problems and disastrous fiascos because of him.

She once told him it was classified to what her purpose behind all this was, but if she's going to be rid of him, might as well tell him why. If he is even capable of comprehending it, that is.

She points to the plant symbol on her suit.

"Because I need to follow my directive, I need to find the plant."

"The plant?"

_She's staying because of the plant?_

"But, I-I thought you have it already."

"I did, until you stole it and lost it," she gets straight to the point. Though she's hiding her bitter disposition towards him rather coolly, she's still too impatient to be rid of him.

Wally tried to put the pieces together.

_So that's why she's so angry? I lost the pl-_

"W-W-W-Wait a second! _'I'_ stole and lost the plant?" he stuttered.

"Yes. And that's why I'm sending you back to Earth."

"B-But I didn't take it! It was frozen along with you in your pod the whole ti-" Eve cuts him off.

"Well no one else, but you, has seen the plant, so therefore, you're the only one who could possibly have taken it. Unless you can tell me where it is or what you did with it, I don't need you around here anymore." She turns around to the console, just had enough of Wally playing innocent with her.

It made little sense to how she felt, he though Eve would be happy to see him again, to be with her, like on Earth. Wally had to ask her directly the only daring question to answer all of his confusion.

"Is that why you are so mad?"

Eve stopped dead in her tracks. Clearly, Wally, in all of his never-ending sincere curiosity, truly didn't understand what happened to her throughout his presence on the _Axiom_.

She turned around in a flash, with fire in her eyes as she snapped at him.

"Why am I so mad? Why am I SO MAD? I'M PRACTICALLY PISSED OFF! BECAUSE! OF! YOU!"

She lost whatever calmness she had left as she approached Wally with an accusing finger pointed at him. He shrunk down as she yelled and stepped closer to him with her pointed finger until she poked her every accusing finger into his broken nose, which added to the pain of his broken nose and his breaking heart.

"YOU STOLE AND LOST THE PLANT! GOT ME COURT-MARSHALED! SENT ME TO THE WARD! YOU BROKE IN AND SAW ME _NAKED_! YOU MADE _OTHER PEOPLE _SEE ME NAKED! ALLOWED EVERY CLINICALLY INSANE CONVICT ON THE SHIP TO ESCAPE! CAUSED A RIOT! ALMOST KILLED SOMEONE! AND WORST OF ALL: **YOU TOOK AWAY MY CHANCE TO BRING THIS SHIP BACK TO EARTH! REDUCED ME INTO A WANTED CRIMINAL AND A LAUGHING STALK!"**

Wally's mind ran in fear-ridden circles. Confused over the things she told him he did from freeing tormented patients to peeping and accidentally destroying property, all building towards humiliating her. Nevertheless, it all harmed Wally than it did to Eve. It painfully reminded him of just how clumsy he was, and still is.

After Eve stares him down burning holes into his heart with her fiery eyes, she whips her back to Wally, her long white hair almost smacking him in the face as if intentionally. She heads back to the launch bay console. Wally sat there shrunken in his seat, distraught and at a loss of words.

"I'm sending you back to Earth and that's final. And good riddance too, I don't need _you_ around to make my life even worse than you already made it. At least I'll know it's far more comfortable here in the brig than rotting away in that craphole planet you call 'home,'" Eve said without looking at him in a stern and insolent tone which was more than audible enough regrettably to reach Wally's ears and stick a knife through his heart.

His eyes cannot help but show how hurt he felt as Eve's infuriated words echoed in his mind. He felt like a kicked puppy overall. Even his broken rib, bloodied nose, pistol-whipped forehead and clenched jaw hurt more than anything painful he's ever felt. They weren't the worst injuries imaginable, for he's had _far_ worse things happen to him but those wounds were inflicted by the one he loved. They both knew he was clumsy but she had gone too far to blame _everything _on him.

He felt Eve was hurting him directly, his emotions and body, as if she hated him. All for things he innocently never intended to happen. He was on the brink of tears.

Eve moves over to the control console, readying the ship to send him away...

_No! I'm not going back! _

He felt an awakening when he realizes in a few moments he will be sent back if he stays on this pod. He didn't have time to cry now, he had to take action.

_I'm innocent! I love her! I am not going let some irritated female of Eve send me away and loose her forever!_

A new emotion runs through Wally, one he thought he would never relay or express to Eve. He exits the pod, walking taller than he ever felt before.

Eve was just about to start launching the _Axiom_ escape pod when she notices Wally strolling up to her.

"Get in the escape pod, Wally," her voice final. He responds in the most unexpected way that grabs her complete attention.

"No."

Eve looked at him dumbstruck did he just disobey her? Her confusion didn't last long, for her boiling anger was now taking control of her thoughts.

"Wally! Get in the pod! NOW!" her voice rang in his ears, he held his ground.

"I said no Eva! I did not steal the plant. And I'm very sorry that I've been so clumsy, but I'm not going anywhere."

He's being truthful, there was no way he could have possibly stolen the plant from her frozen pod and he tried and failed even. Her cryogenic tube was impervious after all. The thought popped into Eve's mind, but once again, she's too blind-sighted by her own fury.

"I'm warning you! **Get in that pod this _very instant_!" **She hissed at him. Wally saw her hand trail over the grip of her plasma rifle, the safety switched off.

He knew it would be suicidal to stand up to someone as temperamental as Eve, _if _there were someone with her ill-temper level to begin with but he has a resolution. He purely loves Eve beyond measure and forever will but he had to stick up for himself, even to her because she is being irrational and he is innocent.

Wally hesitated for a moment, her final warning meant life or death but Wally found the right answer for the necessity of the situation, he answers as calm, firm and as clearly as he can but not without summoning the courage to not run away from the immediate threat.

"Eva…I'm _not_ leaving this ship."

It all happened too instantly. Wally realized he was on the ground, staring down the barrel of Eve's plasma rifle mere centimeters from between his eyes, before he knew Eve struck Wally and knocked to the ground. She kneeled over him, pinning his body to the deck with one knee and another pressed into his throat in a lock combat stance.

**"FINE! It's better if I just kill you now! And everything will go back to normal!"** She spoke through clenched teeth and fiery hate-filled eyes in insurmountable anger.

**"Any last words?" **Eve demanded.

_This would happen_, Wally expected of her killer instincts, he wasn't just going to comply with this murderous woman's demands to leave her. He had to try to reconnect with the Eve he knew, even in the face of certain death.

He struggles to breathe under Eve's death grip so he could speak, though in a choke and breathing between words, he talked quietly one more time to calm her down and explain everything, braving his fear of obliteration.

"Eva…please…listen to me... I really mean it... I had nothing to do...with taking away...the plant... You froze yourself...along with the plant...as soon as you saw it when...I gave it to you... Don't you remember...when you were in my home...back on Earth?... When I showed you all my things...my treasures...and the lighters I had? ...And the plant?..."

… Eve heard him, and took into account his calm demeanor and his honest voice. Despite how defenseless he was and how innocent he was, her over-the-top boiling temper had her concentrated more on her twitching index finger, just halfway through pulling the trigger and being rid of the source of her turmoil once and for all…

"…They were gifts... The plant was a gift _for you_, Eva... I would _never_ want to take something...I gave...back from you."

Her finger froze micrometers from triggering the firing mechanism of the rifle, all the rage and hate instantly faded out of her at the last sentence he spoke. Eve's expression softened as his words sank in, and her returning blue eyes took in the true acquaints of his intense yet innocent eyes and the honesty in his rough voice, he didn't blink, stutter, tremble, or sound scared in any way. Deep down, something told her he told the truth.

A question brewed within Eve's mind, still processing what he said.

It all seemed to make sense, for she neglected to take into account of Wally's harmless and good-natured demeanor. Something about all this doesn't fit. It was something about Wally, not just the fact that such an important thing as a plant he gave to her as a gift, but rather about why he was here. How or what in Forthright drove him to journey through space and the _Axiom_ to be present with her or follow her around? After all the mishaps and chaos that transpired, after unintentionally all the harm she inflicted on him and the accidents he caused, what influencing force or event had him stick by her side throughout the ordeal, no matter what.

She thinks she has an idea of what it might be, something she shrugged off when she was with him in his home, thinking about it when looking at a tiny flame from a Zippo lighter.

_What was it__?_

The seconds Wally waited for seemed like hours, Eve still over him and her weapon trained between his eyes. She finally let her choke hold off his throat, and broke the silence by daring herself to ask that question.

"So…then…why did…y-you come all this way for me?"

Her voice barely a whisper but Wally heard loud and clear as thunder, he knew exactly of what she was asking him. It was something he awaited to say in what seemed like forever, he can finally tell her he came all the way here, for her!

The turbo lift in the bay corridor chimed to life. Before Wally could say anything, his attention and Eve's instantaneously snapped towards the sliding elevator doors, the overhead screen showed a turbo lift lowering to their exact level and only a few seconds away. Someone is coming.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Eve and Wally gasp in panic. Eve gets off Wally in time to shut the room down. The _Axiom_ _Escape Vehicle_area darkens, hatch closes and all emergency lights and consoles deactivate. The main entrance doors close with a quick screech, sealing them in the bay just before the elevator doors open. Wally and Eve dash for the nearest objects to hide under.

They hold their breath, preparing for the worst as they hear the bay doors open.

Footsteps enter the room, only one person by the sound of it. The footsteps sound familiar, the evenly pace tapping of formal dress shoes. It couldn't be a steward, they wore combat boots. This one had to be a high-ranking official.

The unknown figure approaches the main console, behind where Wally and Eve hid. The figure taps a few commands in the console, the _Axiom_ _Escape Vehicle_ and launch bay illuminate back to the way they were. As the figure approaches the opened hatch, Wally and Eve are shocked to see the unmistakable Master Chief of Security Gofer entered the pod, carrying something hidden from view in his other hand.

"_Chief Gofer?" _Eve mouths soundlessly to Wally, perplexed as he is. They lean over the side of the console to spy on what the head of the _Axiom'_s steward security was doing down here in the evacuation levels.

Eve gasps, Wally looks in the direction of her line of sight, getting the same reaction. In Gofer's other hand, was the old ratty boot and the seedling of an **_Ailanthus Altissimo _**planted within it**_._**

"The plant!" she whispers as excitedly and quietly. Their day just changed, the plant not been either stolen by Wally or lost by Eve, rather most improbably by the third highest-ranking officer of the _Axiom_.

Gofer places the plant in the middle of the deck, if in disgust. Wally and Eve quickly hide behind the cover of the hatch when the chief looks back. From the looks of him, he seemed suspicious, and paranoid, making sure no one is watching him. He then gets to work. They can't see what the chief is doing on the _Axiom__ Escape Vehicle'_s control column but whatever it is, it can't be good.

Though they know who the real thief behind all this is, only more questions arise inside both of Wally and Eve's minds as they speculate about the motives of his treachery.

_Why did he steal the plant? Why did he bring it here? And what is he doing to the pod?_

As Wally busied himself spying Gofer, Eve glimpses over to him. Something else arose in her mind, Wally _WAS_ telling the truth.

He was an innocent victim all along of her mislead wrath. He been framed and was paid for Gofer's crime through ill-tempered physical punishment since leaving the BRIDGE all the way to here, by her.

A ping of overwhelming guilt came over her when she remembers their confrontation just a minute ago when at gunpoint. He pleaded to her that he was being truthful, while she was just moments from blowing his head off, for nothing.

_What have I done?..._ she mentally dreaded over her thoughts, she almost killed, no, almost _murdered_ an innocent man. Eve felt unbearable guilt...

Gofer turns from his unknown work to exit the pod. Wally and Eve hide further away from the hatch as Gofer heads back to the main control console. Eve keeps on eye on his every move…

…completely unaware Wally stealthily snuck into the _e_scape vehicle to retrieve Eve's plant…

…Gofer checks the outside of the launch bay for any witnesses. No one but a hidden Eve. He then activates the external release sequence, shrugging off on how it already activated. Eve doesn't understand why he was going to launch the pod with the plant.

_That means the plant will be lost! _Eve turns to Wally-he is nowhere to be seen.

_Wait. WHERE'S WALLY?_

Her question answered when she looks into theescape pod. He has picked up the plant from the floor.

_Oh no! He's going to be launched!_

"Eva!" he mouths wordlessly in triumph, blissfully unaware of what's about to happen.

"WALLY!-"

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Too late, Gofer presses the manual launch command.

Before Eve could get him to get out, the hatch closed Wally inside the _Axiom_ _Escape Vehicle_ jettisons from its moorings. The engines engage and blasts the escape pod away from the _Axiom_ and into deep space.


	21. eXtRa VeHiCuLaR rEsCuE

**DISCLAIMER **

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_.

* * *

Gofer hurryingly shuts off the launch alert system, not wanting to draw attention to a jettisoned escape pod. All is quiet as he takes one last look at the escape vehicle shrinking in the distance of the void. Just a little bit longer and his task will be complete, the pod needs to get out of plain sight before that happens though but he can't stay here to watch it, should the captain take notice in the **BRIDGE** or any passengers or crew watching outside. They hardly ever do, but better safe than sorry.

He turns to leave, but freezes. Did he just hear a sound? He runs out of the launch bay to avoid any witnesses. Eve emerges from behind cover, too worried to be relieved of avoiding detection after calling out to Wally.

"Oh, no," she dashes over to the viewport hatch and looks on in horror to see Wally rapidly dwarfing and disappearing into space. She tries to think, what should she do? He's getting farther and farther by the second, what should she do?

Eve looks around in desperation, her mind too stressed of the situation for quick coherent thinking. She spots the service airlock. That's it! She must go after him! As fast as she can move, Eve accesses the extra-vehicular survival gear, Eve frowns when she sees there's nothing but bulky spacesuits.

_No, too time consuming to put those on, and not very useful. _She begins to panic.

_Come on, Come On, COME ON!_ _Hurry! _her mind races for another answer. She finds that other answer. In the stock of the _Axiom's Extra-Vehicular Activity_ equipment, were…aha! Flickinger Field generator gloves, small plasma-window emitters built into a special glove that create an invisible energy shield around a person's body, enclosing a breathable atmosphere and allows the wearer to operate in the vacuum of space without a full-body pressurization suit.

Eve dons one of the gloves and activates the force field, a faint aura of energy surrounds her body, sealing her from the outside and equalized with normal air pressure. Not wasting any time, she enters the service airlock, bypassing the depressurization sequence and, without a moment hesitation, manually opens the outer hatch.

She blasts out of the instantly decompressed airlock, the escaping air catapulting her into the vacuum of space at high velocity. Eve straightens her body like a skydiver, her nano-suit's spaceflight mode automatically activating. Her heads-up device shows the escape pod is already twenty thousand meters from the _Axiom_ and is rapidly accelerating at an alarming rate. She neutrally diverts more of her suit's power to the antigravity boots, leaving a contrail of blue light in her wake.

She surpasses the escape automobile's speed, slowly gaining on it. Nineteen thousand, five hundred meters, then nineteen thousand meters...eighteen thousand ...

She pursues him like a bat out of hell bent on saving an innocent victim…

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Wally had no idea what just happened, one second he was closed off from Eve and now he was pinned to the hatch, screaming his head off as the escape vehicle rocketed away, almost snapping his neck from the g-forces of sudden speed burst.

The _Axiom Escape Vehicle_'s onboard computer decelerates the pod.

"_CRUISING SPEED, YOU ARE NOW FREE TO MOVE ABOUT THE CABIN._"

Wally falls to the deck, the least too relieved. He's still gathering his situational awareness.

"Uh, oh," as he sees the great flagship star liner begin to dwindle in the distance, he realizes he was launched and getting farther and farther away from the _Axiom_, from Eve! He has to do something!

He scrambles to his feet, looking around for what to do. Wally sees the control column and looks back at the _Axiom_. He dashes for the piloting controls, he has to get back to ship. Wally grabs the steering yoke, it won't bulge. He pulls harder, still nothing, after slamming the controls it still doesn't respond to any of his commands.

"Come on!" he fights the controls, realizes Gofer must've set them to autopilot.

"Dang it!" Wally looks around the controls to regain steering. He has no idea how to fly this thing. The control column displayed incomprehensible amounts of useless information. No overrides, no communications, or manual controls displayed on the touch-sensitive panel. Gofer really screwed this thing up and he obviously didn't want this thing to return, but why?

An alarming instrument screen caught Wally's attention. He looks closely at it, an already pressed button surrounded by a red pulsating dial counting down from sixty to zero, already approaching twenty. Wally's expression freezes in terror when the computer reads it out.

"_SELF-DESTRUCTION SEQUENCE ACTIVATED, T-MINUS TWENTY SECONDS._"

"Aaaaaaah!" Wally's heart pounds like a jackhammer in his chest, he was going to die! He frantically presses the button, trying to stop the sequence, nothing happens.

"Uh-Uh-COMPUTER, DEACTIVATE! DEACTIVATE IT!" That doesn't change it either. In desperation, he presses every button he sees, there's got be a way to shut it down. All it does is launch flares, inflatable rafts, parachutes and windshield wipers. Nothing can stop it. The sequence is set in motion and irreversible.

"_DANGER: T-MINUS TEN SECONDS TO SELF-DESTRUCT._"

Wally is beyond terrified. Only ten seconds left…Wait! There's still the Extra-Vehicular Activity, he can jump into space!

"_Ten…nine…eight…_" Faster than he's ever moved before, Wally grabs a Flickinger glove from the spacewalk equipment and feverishly slips it over his hand and activates it. He grabs a Halon fire extinguisher and prepares to exit.

"…_seven…six…_"

_Wait! The plant!_ Wally whips around and grabs the most important thing he came for. Not bothering to put it in his bag, he dashes for the hatch with the fire extinguisher at the ready; with any luck, he should clear the blast radius in time.

"…_five…four…_" Luck takes a turn for the worst, as Wally can't pry the hatch release open, he pulls with all his might, nothing. He bangs on the hatch with the extinguisher, screaming. No dice, he was trapped inside!

_"…three…two…_"

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

...four hundred meters…

Eve's nano-suit diverted all its circuital energy to propulsion, her antigravity servomechanism beyond maximum capacity but she soared through space at a thousand meters per second. She's gain on him.

...three thousand meters…

Her hope building as she gets closer and closer.

...two thousand meters…

The pod is clearly within a few second's reach.

...one thousand meters…

Eve is ecstatic she can save him.

_Yes! Almost there!_

A flash of bright light stops Eve dead in her tracks. Eve's eyes wide in shock and despair not believing what she saw.

The _Axiom Escape Vehicle_ has exploded.

* * *

Now if anybody who have come across this story instead of the original, you may have noticed the words **Flickinger Fields**. Allow me to explain, **Flickinger Field** is a fictional invisible force field but can be seen as a faint aura in the right light that projects just above the user's clothing except for an extended bubble in front of the face for breathability. These fictional force fields are used by the author _Jack McDevitt_, an American science fiction author whose novels frequently deal with attempts to make contact with alien races along with archaeology or xenoarchaeology. They are mentioned in the novels The Engines of God, Deepsix, Chindi,  Omega, Odyssey, and the short story Oculus.

A little bit more will be explained in the following chapter.


	22. space DANCE

**DISCLAIMER **

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_.

* * *

Eve remained hovering in space several kilometers from the _Axiom_. She gazed in complete shock and despair at the rapidly dissipated fireball of the destroyed escape pod, its oxygen-deprived flames and white-hot debris fading in with the glimmering stars of the Milky Way.

The few seconds she remained shocked seemed to last forever for her, the spectacular view of the surrounding nebula and the distant galaxy couldn't draw Eve out of the disdainful state she was in. She witnessed the occupant of that pod blown to smithereens in an instant. Eve feels a swelling and queasy sensation inside her as if punched in the stomach. She just saw Wally die right before her eyes.

"No…no…" Eve shook her head in denial, still not believing that this happened. She felt if her entire universe came crashing down upon her.

She was too late. She wasn't fast enough to catch up and save him. If she had not conceived the idea of sending him away in that abominable vehicle and inadvertently left it operational for Gofer unknowingly sending him off into space. If she wasn't so wrongfully ill tempered with him to begin with...she would have not sent him to his death.

She continues her way toward the remains of the escape vehicle, uncertain as if she were still trying to go after him.

Eve spots something white flying in her direction from the debris field. It was somewhat human sized, approaching fast, and it's leaving trails of powdery white crystals in its wake. Eve isn't the least bit concerned for it at the moment other than dodging it to avoid collision.

It whizzes passed her and towards the _Axiom_.

_Wait a second. _

Eve flips around when she immediately recognizes something familiar about that flying piece of debris. It is a yellow-suited human with a fire extinguisher as a propulsion device, waving a hand at her.

"WALLY!"

She shouts her rejoice inside her Flickinger field, her gut-punched sensations faded, he is alive and well.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

"EVA!" Wally shouts in joy and waves as he flew pass Eve.

She seemed to be calling out to him as if she didn't hear him. He could neither hear her nor anything except for the sound of his breathing. Though he can't hear the voice he treasured so much of her since sound waves cannot travel in the vacuum of space, the very sight of her is comforting enough for after what happened, he is too happy to see her.

Wally emerged from the explosion unscathed yet a bit shell shocked that he managed to open the hatch at the last second and narrowly avoided being blown up. The instant he saw Eve, his universe fell right back in place, all was okay.

He still flew away from her, he let go of the extinguisher's lever to stop, though he kept drifting without slowing down or speeding up. Without anything in the void to move against to turn his body around, he points the extinguisher hose behind his back. He presses the lever, the propulsive force rockets him right back the way he came, zipping right pass Eve again.

He lets go of the lever and points the extinguisher behind himself for a quick burst. It slows him down until he comes to stop, surprised how much movement he can do in space with the extinguisher.

Eve tries catching him too, and yet overshoots. She turns around to see him a few hundred meters away before she could stop in her tracks.

Wally waves at her to stay where she is, learning of how effective short-controlled burst are of the extinguisher, gently squeezes the lever several times. He seemed to get some excitement out of flying in the vacuum with this simple device, he toys around with it as he navigates his way to Eve.

Just as Wally gets within arm's reach of her, he is too preoccupied with the extinguisher as he unintentionally sprays the crystallized white foam at her to slow himself down. She chuckles slightly at seeing him so happy with such a materialistic object as a fire extinguisher. Wally plays around with it still, bursting it in several directions, changing his position in zero gravity; he is having lots of fun with it in a new light besides the one he threw away back on Earth.

"Wally," Eve sternly grabs onto his shoulders with both hands to get his attention, their Flickinger fields meld together on contact, now they could hear and touch each other.

To be sure he was alright, Eve feels and looks over Wally. Other than his still-present shakiness, the protective force field Wally found in time protected him from being burn or seriously harmed while escaping. Eve sighs in overwhelming relief, as if a huge load was lifted off her shoulders, knowing he isn't hurt.

At least, not hurt externally just recently. She finally notices his fading bloodied nose, gun-whip bruise, and felt his cracked rib, all of which were injuries inflicted by her out of blinded anger. A multitude of memories came back to her. She remembers what she did to him back from when they left the **BRIDGE**, when he tried to free her from the **MEDICAL WARD**, the standoff in front of the security forces, the turbo lift and their argument in the _Axiom_ _Escape Vehicle_ bay just minutes ago.

All this time he told her the truth that he inculpably followed her around like a lost puppy as he always did and had never touched the plant he gave her, let alone steal it. Nevertheless, he paid for the injustice of Gofer's crimes by her taking out her frustration on this poor garbage man. A tightness in her throat formed as a ping of guilt came over her.

"Eva?"

Wally stared at Eve, wondering why she looked him over and started to look weird at him. Her looks were replaced with sadness when she can't seem to speak. She just hovered in front of him, starring back at him while lost in her mind.

Eve pulls Wally toward her, embracing him around his chest. She buries her face in his shoulder, too ashamed to continue looking at him after remembering everything she did to him.

"Whoa," Wally is surprised by her sudden hug, unlike all the other times of physical contact, she felt very soft, gentle, and did not hurt him this time. In fact, she feels VERY soft and gentle against him. Her skin and nano-suit felt smoother than the finest natural material. He was even surprised how she avoided paining his rib while holding him tightly. He feels comfortable in her display of affection, but Eve's depression continued to confuse him.

"Wally…" she spoke quietly while still hiding her face.

"…I… I'm…" her voice sounded crooked, saddened, and trying to get her sentence out of her lumpy throat.

"…I'm sorry…I'm…so sorry."

Wally was even more confused, wasn't she happy to see him alive?

"S-sorry? For what?"

"…f-for being so…" she tries to think of the right words to describe overall how she's been acting towards him, not that it would only be a single-fitting descriptive word Wally could comprehend but a word in itself could articulate all the terrible treatment she has shown towards him.

"…so…"

Mean, terrible, or awful were too simple. Masochist, gruesome, or overly emotional were too complex. She wishes she could say them all at once but she wanted simply yet sincerely apologizes for her inconsiderate cruelty.

_Inconsiderate. Cruelty_. Well, given that it's hard enough to find one word for it all, it'll have to do.

"…so…inconsiderate...so cruel...so...stupid. I've been such an idiot t-to hurt you so much, Wally…I'm so sorry," she finished in a very silent whimper, holding him tighter.

Wally stayed silent, letting what Eve tried to say sink in as she silently wept on his shoulder. Eve is sad she hurt him because she didn't know he was telling the truth on he didn't steal the plant?

Wally countered the thought, there's no need for her to be sad or sorry. He loved Eve, he would never let the burden of begging for forgiveness fall upon her. If anything, it doesn't matter anymore, because they now know that Gofer is the true verdict. Besides, Wally barely survived a near-death experience, and they should at least be glad to hold each other now at the moment.

_There is no need to forgive, _he returns her embrace, wrapping his welcoming arms around her narrow shoulders, stroking her long, silky white hair to ease her pain away. To reassure that everything was okay, there is nothing for her to worry.

Though Wally felt disheartened the majority of Eve's day has been degrading more and more for her ever since she awoke. All the unfortunate chain of incidents has taxed Eve's sanity and now she was breaking down in his arms.

He felt bad for her, oh he wished for anything that would make her life not so miserable at this very moment...

Wally notices the boot with the plant clutched in a death-grip in his prosthetic hand his expression goes surprised. He had completely forgotten he still had it with him after escaping the escape pod. His face changes to a bright grin, he just answered his own silent request. This ought to banish Eve's sorrow and definitely cheer her up in an instant.

"Eva, look," he holds the plant out from the embrace to show her.

When Eve peeks from her buried face, her head shoots up straighter than an arrow, gasping in utter disbelief of what she is seeing.

She too, had completely forgotten about the plant as well, already out of her mind when she thought it was incinerated with Wally. Before it came to her he was still here, so was the plant!

"WALLY!" She instantly took the plant in both hands and placing it in her biodegradable stasis container, her face once ridden with sorrow now shined with pure joy because of him.

**"OH…THANK YOU!"**

Wally flinches when an overjoyed Eve wraps around his skinny frame in a vise-grip hug, spinning in circles.

"…THANKYOU! THANKYOU! THANKYOU! THANKYOU! THANKYOU!..."

Wally quickly forgets his fear, can't believe his luck as Eve can't stop thanking him.

"Aww...you're welcome." He returns the tight hug, resting his head on her shoulder. Getting dizzy and elated at the same time as the starlight and violet nebula swirl all around him in zero gravity, he closes his eyes, falling in a state beyond euphoria as he let the radiant scent, smoothness, and warmth of his loved one's happiness fill the rest of his senses.

They stopped spinning, remaining in a snug embrace. Wally lifts his head up, making eye contact with her beautiful blue ones, not a single trace of her recent sadness could be found. He was further entranced in ecstasy when he takes in the brilliance of her radiant happy face. Her crystal clear irises shone the magnificence of her angelic face enveloped in her white hair, outmatching the astronomical view of the purple stardust clouds around them and the twinkling swirl of the Milky Way galaxy behind her.

Eve is out of breath from thanking him though she thinks she hasn't shown him enough gratitude. He had practically ridded her of her guilt and solved her primary problem of recovering the plant altogether, everything will be all right now that she can complete her directive!

Her lips curl into an alluring smile when she realizes their faces are only a few inches apart, in the spur of the moment she has found a way to truly show how much she thanks him.

Eve's delicate hands cup his jaw. Then…leaning forward with eyes closed…

_Huh?_ Wally is taken by surprise.

_What is she doi-_

…she presses her lips to his.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Wally's mind goes blank, his body freezes like a statue, eye pupils contract to pinpricks and his heart rate quadruples in a split second after he feels what he believes is Eve's soft, sweet lips against his own. If he wasn't mistaken, he felt a tiny moan escape from her through their intertwined lips. He faints instantly upon the sensory overloading realization that he had touched the very edge of Heaven.

She had kissed him.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

After a second or two longer than she thought she wanted to, Eve broke free of the kiss, still mere centimeters from Wally's still caressed, frozen-in-time stunned face. Her eyes slowly open as she breathlessly mouths one last "thank you" in a honeyed tone.

He slides out of Eve's hands, floating in dazzled circles, his mind running only one thought:

_She kissed me!... She kissed me!..._

An angel for such an effect had kissed him.

Eve thought she heard the sounds of him swooning and what seems to be a pacemaker trying to keep up with his impossibly accelerated heartbeat. She giggles uncontrollably at the sight. It must've been Wally's very first kiss and a first kiss from a really pretty young woman like herself.

It's her first as well and she glad she especially saved it for someone who deserved it from her, and would most enjoy it. She did and obviously so did he.

She flies over to Wally, trying to shake him out of his comatose smitten state.

"Wally? WALLY!"

He awakes suddenly, shaking his head to rid of whatever kind of side effects the out of body experience has done on him.

"Are you alright?"

"Um, uh, y-y-yeah!" She's still pleased at the amusing sight of him regaining consciousness from a simple thank you smooch.

Eve looks back toward the _Axiom_, now she has the plant, she could head back and personally show the captain she was telling the truth, that life been found.

"I think we should go. I'll take you with me," she turns back to Wally, reaching out for him to hang on to her to fly back.

"I think I will fly with you, Eva," Wally brings up the fire extinguisher.

"I've always wanted to fly like you."

Pointing it sideways, he presses the lever full, spiraling in accelerating circles and shoots off toward the _Axiom _at high speeds much like how Eve flew her first joy-flight on Earth.

Eve never saw him as happy before as she watch Wally doing all kinds of directions with the extinguisher, acting as energetic and ecstatic as a child on Christmas morning on his newfound power of flight. She laughs as she gives chase to his movements, headed in every direction _but_ back into the ship. Eve finds it too thrilling to ignore flying around with him, and far more thrilling than flying on Earth.

She shrugs off her need to get back to the captain. They have all the time in the universe, with no more escapades, arrests or directives to worry about now. She kicks up her antigravity boots to match the speed of his extinguisher, time to have a little fun with him.

"Wooooohoooooo!"

Wally ran the extinguisher at full blast during a loop, feeling the adrenaline and magic of flight running through him. He never dreamt of being so free to move about in any direction as he pleased, never believing it to exist as much as he once thought beauty never existed before he first laid eyes on Eve. Now, because of her, here he is zipping through space with the freedom of doing anything he ever wanted, possible or impossible, like some kind of deity.

He sees Eve catching up to him with a playful smile on her face. His smile grows wider as he does a couple barrel rolls, daring Eve to follow him who she mimics his every move without flaw, it is time to have some good fun with her.

As they approach the great star liner, Wally and Eve eye the massive dimensions of the ship's numerous systematic structures along its hull. The exact smile and though come across them, they now have their own obstacle course in space and even more fun handed to them.

Wally and Eve sped along the ventral surface of the ship, surfing around communication antennas, umbilical servicing tunnels, and engineering spires. Contour trails of white crystals and blue light twist and twirl as they acrobatically dodge the symmetrical extensions of the _Axiom's _superstructure, racing one another aft, toward the starship's massive ion-drive engines. They swim in between enormous fountains of flames from the thruster nozzles flashing on and off, constantly keeping the ship on course. The seductive glow of white-purple plasma baths Wally and Eve with matching light against the star sprinkled pink nebula.

They made their way up along the _Axiom_'s port side. Eve shooting straight up past the main observation decks like a rocket, with Wally doing ellipses around her blue wake. Eve sees him creating vortex of white foam behind her and catching up to her.

She executes the same move as he, creating a double corkscrew, both looking at each other in total bliss as they rhythmically swirled together, as if they were dancing. The moment of them space flying together was something truly special to behold. More than that...

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

"…so many stars…"

Mary sat in her hover chair, gazing in awe and wonder at the surrounding star field from one of the _Axiom_'s many wide-view observation decks. She was the only one of thousands of people in the corridor actually observing the stars. Everyone else too preoccupied in their digital realm of their holographic-screens behind her, traversing back and forth to their meaningless destinations. She is also the only out of the ordinary thing sticking out of usual activities on the _Axiom_. No holographic-screen, default red jumpsuit, off-track hover chair, fully aware of her surroundings. She hadn't travelled far from the **LIDO DECK** to here, but she drank in every image she saw inside the _Axiom _to here and it felt she explored as much as an entirely new world.

All because of…ah, she can't remember the name of the strange yellow suited man she met a few hours ago, but she wanted to say thanks for showing her all this.

Some movement among the field of stars catches her eye. A very pretty white suited young lady leaving a trail of blue light doing twirls with a messy, yellow suited man leaving a powdery trail were whizzing in circles outside.

"Ooh!"

_That's the very same messy man!_

"Hey! That's what's his name!—"

She got so excited she backed up into some blond haired man's hover chair, Jon's hover chair.

"Look! Look outside!" He felt the bump but remained oblivious to the sight she was pointing and yelling to. She seriously wants other people to see what she saw, even with all the great spectaculars around her, she wanted to share those memorable sights with others. Specifically someone close, considering the loneliness she developed after seeing everybody shut off from her.

For the first time since she could remember, she stretches out of her chair to Jon's keyboard armrest, disabling the holographic-screen functions.

"Hey, What the!—"

"Look at that!" she points to Wally and Eve.

"Huh?" Jon's eyes try to refocus on where the woman pointed after the rude awakening. He does regain awareness of immediate surroundings, enough to make out the familiar face of the strange man he encountered earlier today.

"Hey! I know that guy! It's uh, ummmm…." he thinks hard, trying to recall the name of the man from his first incident of falling out of the holographic-screen dream world.

"Wally! That's it, Wally!"

"Hey, Wally! Hi!" Jon and Mary wave excitedly at their strange friend, seeing him outside the ship, without a space suit, and spacewalking with a beautiful female Extraterrestrial Vegetation Reconnaissance & Evaluation scout something very more notable to remember today than the daily norm.

They waved until Wally and Eve disappeared from sight, heading toward the bow of the ship. Jon sets his hand down on top of his armrest, ready to continue the day but instead, his rests on top of something unexpectedly soft. Mary felt it too when her sense of touch registered a manly hand rested upon her own, completely drawing her attention to the man she pulled aside to witness the intriguing sight with her.

They make eye contact when they felt the touch, both completely dumbfounded for words. They each regard each other as someone they seemed too long for. Having not seen a real person outside a holographic-screen, and unlike the simulated holographic-dates, they have no idea what to say.

"H-Hi," Jon lets the word escape, breaking the awkward silence. Mary feels relieved, returning the introduction.

"Hi."

Now she has someone to show everything she has seen; someone as awake and conscious as herself.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

...As Wally and Eve danced their way up the longitudinal axis of the ship, nothing mattered to them. Not their directives, or what events have transpired of the day, they savored the euphoria, no longer felt bound by the laws of reality, their total insignificance against the forever expansion of the violet void didn't seem to apply for Wally and Eve, actually feeling quite the opposite.

Two, completely different human beings with each other outside in deep space, beyond the farthest reaches of the galaxy, surrounded by the greatest awe-inspiring and most beautiful interstellar creations of the cosmos, all of it, felt as if it was Wally and Eve's personal dance floor that belonged especially to them.

In this moment, the entire universe around them was theirs, and only theirs.

The glimmering Milky Way served as their spotlight, the infinite stars as their audience, and the _Axiom_ as the stage. Their movement through the dark quietness of space was the orchestra to their dance that only they could hear and savor. It was something that made Wally and Eve no longer feel so humble.

They danced like a king and queen.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

By himself on the **BRIDGE**, Commander Otto busied himself with recalibrating the _Axiom'_s internal atomic chronometer, completely unaware of Lieutenant Eve and that 'Wally' spacewalking outside the viewport.

After the captain's lateness for the morning address and reversal of daytime, he had to reset it to default, shifting the internal clocks exactly three hours, one minute and forty-three seconds forward to the appropriate default if left unaltered by the captain.

He slides his finger across the touch-sensitive dial, sliding the current date's summer solstice based daytime setting to night, stopping at exactly _2119:16 hours_ or 9:19:16 PM GMT.

Upon cue, the entire interior of the _Axiom_ adjusts immediately to simulating nighttime atmosphere. Darkened skies, city lights shining, even the Buy n' Large logo artificial sun vanishes over the starboard 'horizon' and a logo crescent moon appears on the other side.

With that task done, there is nothing crucial left to do besides prepare the captain for tomorrow's routines and man the helm again.

Nothing much has happened in the **BRIDGE** since the marshaled Lieutenant Eve and Wally were sent to the medical center, save for riot control call, a faulty reading for an ejected _Axiom_ escape vehicle and a repair alert on one of the starboard side strobe lights. He remained primarily focused on steering the ship for almost all day, as he has everyday throughout his career.

He been doing this kind of daily thing ever since he first set foot on the command deck in his younger years, freshly graduated from training as the _Axiom's_ most distinguished cadet to become first officer, sworn in with Captain McCrea as the sixth command crew after the passing of the _Axiom's_ fifth captain, O'Brien in 2775.

He doesn't mind this kind of ever repetitive routine he has followed for several years in fact he _lives_ through exact followed routine and procedure. He made the complete maintenance functionality, order, and control the Buy n' Large vessel for the lives of the crew and passengers in the absence of the superior officer his personal responsibility and he always took his duty as second-in-command seriously.

To others, he took it too seriously. Having no personal life, never separated from the command center unless it was a dire emergency which was never and never socialized with his peers or even his fellow crewmembers, speaking to others thoroughly rational if only he was spoken to and if it was of any importance to him or the duty at hand. People often regarded him as unfeeling, totally duty-minded, and robotic at times. The latter assumption was most fitting to his personality because he seemed to be part of the ship, never slacking his disciplined composure and professionalism even when he was alone, and talked as if he was a living-breathing supercomputer.

That's how he received his unofficial nickname from the noncommissioned crew: '_Otto the Autopilot."_

With one last thing he can do before manning the primary control column, he heads down to the captain's quarters before taking the helm for the night...

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

...McCrea's room dimly lit but his holographic computer screen brightly overflowed with hundreds upon hundreds of smaller screens filled with images and information, flooding the quarters with multicolored light.

Each square held anything Earth related. The captain completely lost himself in his inquiry about as much of humanity's home planet as he could digest. Starting from Earth itself, learning about each of its topographical surface features, to the composure of its biosphere, the ecology sustained, agriculture, farming, feeding, the sociological aspects, crops, barns, barbecue and to the subject currently in question from this research topic: hoedown.

"Computer, define: 'hoe-down.'" A new screen appeared on the already littered holographic projection, showing an Appalachian folk festival.

"'_HOEDOWN' – A TPYE OF RURAL AMERICAN ORGINATED SOCIAL GATHERING WHERE LIVELY DANCING AND FOLK MUSICAL EVENTS TAKE PLACE._"

The elevator doors chime open and Otto strides in, Captain McCrea is ecstatic to show him everything he has learned. The commander stands at attention as the captain happily tells him everything like an excited schoolchild visiting a museum.

"Otto! Earth is amazing! I've looked up the planet and look what I found!"

Otto stayed silent.

"These are called 'farms.' Humans would put some kind of seeds in the ground, _pour water over them_, and they grow food! Like, like….Pizza!"

"That's sounds of great interest, captain," he answered with the lack of tone as much as the lack of his just said statement.

"However, it is already two thousand, one hundred thirty hours and I highly recommend that you get your rest for tomorrow morning's ship wide announcements at 9:30, should we avoid any other time interval resetting like what transpired today, sir."

McCrea completely forgotten the passage of time, it's night already after what seemed like minutes of research, just when he was actually doing something new and wonderful. But he has a routine to follow.

"Agh, oh alright," less than disappointed, the captain reluctantly deactivates the holographic-screen.

"Night, Otto."

"Sleep well, captain." Otto returns to the elevator and returns to the BRIDGE.

_Wait a sec,_ McCrea halted his hover chair from going into sleep mode.

_What's 'dancing?'_

The captain's brain is too vigorous for him to turn in, so he heads back to his console to continue feeding his inquisitive mind. It doesn't matter if he's late tomorrow and late for what? The same thing all over again?

He'll just do what he did today, besides, he is the captain, he doesn't have to go to bed if he doesn't want to.

_It's the second thing I get to do on this ship._ He grinningly thought.

"Pssst, Computer…" It reactivates at the captain's whisper, keeping everything down so Otto can't hear-

_Eh, forget it! Otto won't complain. _

He asks in a normal tone.

"…define: dancing."

The captain doesn't notice the contour trails of Wally and Eve doing said research topic just outside his external viewport...

"…'_DANCING' – A SERIES OF EXPRESSIVE ART FORM BODY MOVEMENTS, USUALLY INVOLVING TWO PARTNERS, WHERE SPEED AND RHYTHM MATCH HARMONIOUSLY WITH MUSIC…_"

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Wally didn't know how long the moment lasted, the space dance with a rejoiced Eve was bliss and beautiful unlike anything he has ever experienced. The sensations were almost too powerful for him to not acknowledge that he isn't moving in the direction he wanted to with Eve.

He pressed the lever to the extinguisher at full blast, but disappointed to see it has already out of foam to spray.

_Time sure flew. _Now he drifted helplessly away from the _Axiom_, the magic of the moment he felt have all but faded in an instant, feeling the dead calm sink back into him; before Eve's force field comes into contact with his.

"Don't worry, Wally, I gotchya." Her slender arms catch Wally by his sides. Upon the sight and sensation of Eve close to him was all it took for Wally to feel warmth run through him again, back in the arms of his love.

"Want to go back?" she asks indirectly to Wally while finding another way back inside the _Axiom_.

"Not really."

Eve smiles at Wally's euphoric need to stay out in space and dance forever. She enjoyed it too, unlike the many times she flew over other worlds. Now she has a plant to return.

"Alright, let's go." She holds onto him tight as they fly down the lower hull towards an open maintenance airlock.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Bernie, a lone electron welder occupied himself, singing as he rigged a replacement strobe light along the ship's external railing.

It had been a frustrating day for this fellow so far, with so many distractions and mishaps happening that made him mess up several fusing with the lights. This was the last replacement he had to work with, so he is taking his time and relaxing the tension of his stressful work with a little _Beethoven_ resounding through his pressure suit.

The hatch behind suddenly closed behind before he finished the last note to "Ode to Joy," and the last touch to the weld.

"Huh?" He depolarizes his faceplate to see two blurry figures seal the airlock off, locking him outside.

"Hey!" He abandons his work, sprinting to the hatch as fast as his magnetic boots will allow.

"Let me in! LET ME IN!" he pounds harder and harder on the door, no answer. The **SUPPLIER DEPOT** deep inside the tunnels can't hear him and whoever snuck in didn't want to be discovered.

"Aaaaagh!" he pounds his whole body against the hatch in frustration, and leans against the hull in defeat. The **DEPOT** won't respond to him unless he's finished with his work, and now he's locked outside, having forgotten to bring any means of electric communication with the inside, his carbon dioxide and oxygen filters in need of repair, no food or water and no other access point to get back in.

"Not again!" How is he going to get back to the **DEPOT** _this_ time?

* * *

As I have brought up the explanation of the **Flickinger Field** in the previous chapter, I asked _**whoadrep08**_ for more information about this and he came back with a very interesting answer:

This concept is physically possible being experimented often by particle physicists at MIT by trying to contain a paper-thin field of superheated helium in plasma form within a magnetic field which could repel any matter it touched without vaporizing them by the temperature properties of ionized gas(plasma) which exceeds temperatures of twelve thousand degrees Fahrenheit. The only problem with it is it requires too much power to generate it and the largest one built was three foot by three foot field that lasted fifty seven seconds, requiring kilowatts of electrical power, enough energy to light up an entire city block for the same amount of time.

_**Whoadrep08 **_chose this technological method in wanting to keep the intimate feeling of Wally and Eve sharing their first kiss in space and the ability to do so while being close to realistic as possible.


	23. Lido Deck

**DISCLAIMER **

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_.

* * *

The Earth seemed a lot cleaner in the backdrop of blackness as the _Axiom_ approaches it. Somehow, its atmosphere and landmasses deeply cleansed to which it reflects the _Axiom_ itself…along with the big, fat fingers of certain whooshing captain holding the _Axiom_.

"Prepare for landing," McCrea mimics his voice over a pretend radio, the rocket engine sounds of the miniature model of the ship touching down with screeches of landing gear tires on the scale globe of Earth against his viewport. By himself in his quarters, he let his mind childishly wondering about the prospect of returning to Earth, regardless of missing bedtime; he enjoyed it as a child, and he still does.

"We're here everybody!" he keeps his voice low yet playful pretend voices between his point of view and second person standpoints of cheering passengers.

"'Yay, captain, we're home! It's so beautiful, oh thank you!' Oh, no it's nothin' I was pleased to do this. It's all about you people, it's not about me, it's—"

His holographic computer console pings, drawing his attention from playing pretend. He hovers over to the console with the globe and toy star liner in hand. A new square hovering over his pictures of Earth research shows a newly written message from the medical ward.

**X-AxMEDFAC.1.0—B. MCCREA, CPT. Ax. IE: WALLY **

Now the captain was drawn to the new information, he remembered earlier of Otto sending the strange man 'Wally' to the medical ward for identification and cleaning.

He opens the file, reading it all to himself.

BNLS AXIOM MESSAGING ORDER 011931-12

PRIORITY CODE: Green

FROM: _Axiom_ Medical Clinic and Evaluation Center

TO: B. McCrea, captain, BNLS Axiom

SUBJECT: 'Wally'

Classification: Private

Upon order of Commander Otto, the evaluation laboratory has performed a complete genetic profile identification of the patient known as 'Wally,' even in the light of today's Code 5150 outbreak. After extraction and analysis of necessary deoxyribonucleic acid samples, we have discovered that no record exists of him within any of the _Axiom_ computer's passenger or crew DNA manifests, nor does he exist within any genetic database in the _Axiom_'s records. 

However, diagnostics did come to the following conclusions of the individual 'Wally' upon searching through the Buy N' Large historical archives, specifically of Operation: Cleanup. PCR analysis maps out his gene pool ancestry to a family tree located within BNL Cleanup Sector North America zero, zero, one, known as Burtt, which were among the two hundred million preselected laborers to continue the global operation. All further historical information for the Burtt descendents has ceased upon the date of June 27th 2110.

'Wally,' his surname is by heir if not birth name as - Wallace Burtt. 

The only other information available for Wally's known physiology extracted from his genetic mapping samples are as follows:

Estimated Date of Birth: June 28, 2775.

Blood Type: A-

Tissue samples of skin show externally solar-bleached pigmentation, indicating prolonged and dangerous exposure to ultraviolet radiation levels from unhealthful sunlight. 

Multitude of granulation scar tissue from abrasions, continual blister and callus buildup and infection, puncture wounds, deep gashes, and second to third degree burn tissue; along with bacterial infected wounds from improper healing to exposure to foreign bodily contaminants, including his right forearm limb and cardiovascular prosthetics.

Biochemical analysis from blood samples indicate unhealthful malnutrition, very low-blood sugar content and near-emaciation zero body fat levels. Subject also contains a diminished immune system having survived various strains of extinct viruses such as malaria, pneumonia, smallpox, hepatitis, and influenza.

Retinal cortex scan of cerebral functions have shown indications of intensive neural scarring from post-traumatic stress and no inceptor dampened from extreme amounts of physical pain and or witness of extreme traumatic events. Signs of cognitive interaction cross firing were detected, presumably from prolong periods of total isolation during early childhood to ongoing and constituting Wallace Burtt as borderline 'feral child.'

Our most logical assumptions to the state of Wallace Burtt is, despite the impossibility of his origin, due to growing up on Earth and surviving harsh environmental hazards and total isolation from any social interaction for a period as long as several years, quite possibly most of his lifetime.

We hope this information is of value to you, sir.

The captain sat there in thought for moment, processing all the information about Wally, also known as 'Wallace,' about the man that sparked his curiosity of Earth. Yet as interesting his information may seem he is puzzled as to how the most advanced government of humanity couldn't keep track of any information for almost seven centuries just for the past of garbage collecting descendents. Now he knows of all the physical details of Wallace's being and physiology, it tells him a little something about how Wally lived on Earth but something that doesn't make sense.

All his feral lifestyle, his injuries, his unhealthy mental and physical state, and the like; something about it doesn't quite fit the picture or perspective of how life is on Earth compared to how he researched it.

_If Wally is from Earth, from the same area that __Extraterrestrial Vegetation Reconnaissance & Evaluation_ _scout_ _explored, then how could he live like that?_

The trash chute in the corner flies off its hinges as Lieutenant Eve busts out of the disposal conduit. She lets all of her breath out now she is free from the filthy line.

The captain nearly jumped out of his hover chair, he turns around stunned by her sudden and unexpected appearance.

"Lieutenant Eve?"

"Captain, I found it!" Eve hastily salutes before she holds the seedling planted in the boot out of the biodegradable stasis canister.

"I have the plant! I was telling you the truth. I have found photosynthesizing life on Earth."

The captain is at first, dumbfounded and slow to comprehend, but his expression grows to great levels of awe.

"How…" He drops the globe and toy ship in his hands.

"C-Can I see it? How did you find it?" He hovers over to Eve, reaching out to see like a child awaiting a long awaited treat.

"It's a long story, but I have it." She proudly hands him the plant, who is beyond amazed to further question Eve about her journey to get it, too stunned and excited by the sight of the plant and the realization of what it means.

"We can go back home, for the first time!" That meant Earth, and upon that thought, his curiosity about it returns.

"Oh! What's it like now?"

"Sir?"

"You know, Earth, how green is it? What's the soil and the seas like?"

"Uh…" Eve isn't sure how to answer what she explained earlier on the BRIDGE. Though she had proof Earth is habitable, it doesn't change the fact it is as it is, desolate.

"…uuuum, well, sir, its—" The captain cuts her off.

"Nonono, don't tell me!" he excitingly hovers over to his console with Eve following in uncertainty.

"I wanna see for myself, let's see the footage."

Eve knew what he meant, but she's sure he isn't going to like it. She reluctantly removes her tiny camcorder, a device the size of a pencil eraser hidden behind her intercommunication earpiece that visually and audibly recorded thousands of hours of her expeditions from her point of view. The captain eagerly takes the camcorder and plugs it into the console, the holographic-screen projection full of Earth research and Wally's data minimized with the overlapping footage, beginning from the moment Eve reanimated from her cryogenic pod.

Upon scanning her surroundings, the captain's smile lessened as the images of the desolate wasteland come into view. A lessened smile that turns into a look of disturbed confusion as more even desolate wastelands and polluted sky come into view from watching the Reconnaissance Vehicle launch.

"Wait, that doesn't look like Earth." They watch her joy flight, seeing a full view of the desert landscape and the remnants of Sector _NA-001_.

"I'm afraid it is Earth, sir." She fast-forwards from her plasma blasting a rock to her roaming the littered city of New York, scanning everything in her sight, making brief glimpses at the brown daylight.

"But…w-where's the blue sky?" Everything he sees trash brown, desert brown, and more polluted brown as far as Eve could see.

"Where's the grass?" He looks to the screen's side to see the exact opposite perspective he postulated upon his research of Earth, all the beautiful lush green, clear skies and soft fertile ground, all of it isn't real. This only confirmed his questions after reading Wally's supposed information of surviving Earth, his worst uncertainties realized.

Eve notices the captain's distain, skipping the footage of first contact with Wally.

"Like I've said before, captain, the planet is technically habitable, but as you can see, its overall environmental condition is extremely poor."

McCrea's heart sunk, as much as he wanted to deny it, he couldn't turn down the evidence of her trip before him. His dream, his every proud and ceremonious imagination landing on their home planet destroyed. With no other explanation, he slumps in his chair, unable to coop with this demoralizing information.

"I found the plant within Wally's home. He must've discovered it first before he gave it to me." She fast forwards to meeting Wally and their time together in his home, to draw away the captain from his depression, only failing to lighten his spirits when a fantasy has been shattered to fragments. Eve plays the moment Wally presents her his prized Hello Dolly film.

_"…Put On Your Sunday Clothes_

_ There's Lots Of World Out There!..."_

At least music was all it took to get his attention.

"I know that song. They're…uh…" McCrea leans closer for a look at the performers doing some kind act he remembers.

"Dancing. Yeah, dancing!" At least music was all it took to draw a smile on the captain's face.

_Oh, a good song to feel alive to…_

He realizes he is tapping with the rhythm to the song, a song to feel alive throughout, indeed. He lifts the boot in his other hand, marveling at how such a weak, simple seedling as this could survive so much hell to come out this far.

"You made it somehow, eh little guy? You didn't give up, did you?"

A single leaf falls off the stem. McCrea's heart skips a beat, seeing the plant slowly come apart. He tries fruitfully to somehow reattach the leaf to the plant's stem. It appears to be dying and needs a nourishment of some—

"Wait a minute, water!" he hovers quickly to the nearest faucet.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Now by herself, Eve continues watching the footage while letting her mind wonder. The recording projected the images of Wally showing her around his home along with how to dance which resulted in her sending him flying across his home, with a black eye.

She couldn't help but let out a giggle whenever the garbage collecting weirdo did anything amusingly clumsy she witnessed. Though she was empathetic to him for a while, every time he followed her around with those large lost-puppy-eyes, he only ended up unintentionally hurting himself, but he continued to follow her as if nothing happened. It always somehow brought out a laugh in Eve. He is such a child-like nuisance so accident-prone it made him just too adorable to watch.

Eve glances over the captain's holographic-screen to see the minimized message from the **WARD**, regarding Wally and his genetic profiling. She lets the video run as she curiously opens the files and starts reading everything the captain read, his ancestral background, his forgotten full name, physiology and all his known or unknown information. Her interest in 'Wallace' suddenly grew, re-reading each paragraph and forming many questions about him in her mind.

As she read the disturbing parts of how his 'isolation' and 'scarred' state of mind, Eve's face turns morbid. Despite what little she knew of him other than the fact he was the last of his kind, she never wondered until now about how he must have felt living on that desolate planet of Earth. Then it came to her for the time she spent and places she has seen on Earth, she has never encountered someone like him. If what Wally's psychological-analysis said is true and what she saw was true, then he didn't even have family, he was totally, quite utterly, alone for the whole of his thirty year lifespan, probably since shortly after birth.

Eve used to think she was lonely and misfortunate sometimes when she was growing up in a cramped starship with people jealous of her abilities but she had friends, and family, no matter how strained or different they were. Now she couldn't possibly imagine what it felt like to be in Wally's skin who been brought up living every second of his entire life with absolutely no one, no family, no friends, no human contact on an entire world at all to help or care for him. On top of starving, overworked past slavery and surviving for every single day through Forthright-knows-what was on that planet.

She felt pity for how he must have felt of his wounds, prosthetics, diseases and his feral state of mind and body. She probably wondered if anyone ever cared to watch him when he was born or if he ever knew who his mother and father were or how he managed to survive what others couldn't. She especially wondered what was going through his mind with everything he knew of his life haunting him, if he knew he could have had a normal life.

Fate cheated him to be stuck on that planet. No one deserves to be isolated for his or her whole lives without reason.

It rather explained why he didn't leave her sight, not wanting to loss human contact for a second was understandable. Eve again felt pity and guilt for the times she pointed a gun at him or even thought of posing a threat to him.

He must have been so alone, desperate for human contact she may have been the first human he had interacted with since as far back as his memory allowed, and she was a hair's breath away from sending him to an early grave. It nagged at the back of her mind of how she treated him most of the time, either too drawn to her directive or wrongfully blaming him for what he didn't do, and yet, he still came after her. If it was a normal reaction considering his circumstances, Wally would have avoided any other human if at all possible, especially her. But he didn't, he kept by her side and never asked for anything in return regardless of what he did for her.

What pondered Eve's mind the most were questions of how and why he has ventured through _so much _pain and suffering just to remain in her presence ever since he first laid eyes on her.

_"…And That Is All…_

_That Love's About…"_

Her expeditionary footage plays the scene of two lover's singing a beautifully soothing song.

_"…And We'll Recall…When Time Runs Out…_

_...That It Only...Took A Moment..."_

Eve recognizes the beautiful music from Wally's home. She remembered going through the same thoughts of what she was thinking of Wally's good-hearted behavior to her.

_"...To Be Loved..._

_A Whole Life Looonng..."_

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

As the two lovers hold hands on the projection, there's something familiar about that…

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

**'It Only Takes A Moment' ****plays from his ancient cassette player. **

**"Evah…I j-just want to say that...I...uh...uh...that I love you. W-Will you hold my hand?"**

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Wait a minute.

Eve looks down at her hands, slowly interlocking her slender fingers together. The memory of Wally's stirring question sent an epiphany throughout Eve's being. Though she haven't gave it much thought since she came here, everything seemed to fall into place as to explain why he seemed to be with her after every ordeal he survived or what Eve put him through. He loved her.

**_SECURITY CAMERA ACTIVATED_**

The screen faded to black after she notices Wally presenting her the plant, then her going into automated cryonic stasis upon taking the plant from him, completing her directive. The camcorder still runs during suspended animation, capturing everything that happened outside her cryonic pod before retrieval.

The screen then shows Wally's large eyes in shock, confusion, and worry at the moment after she was frozen.

**"…Eva?" ****He taps the pod as if to somehow get her attention. No response. He leans against the pod to hear for any signs of activity within it. Nothing . . . just the pulsating green light.**

"**Eva?" He panics, shaking the pod to awaken her. Nothing happens.**

**"E-E-EVA!" **

**His cries for her echoed through the truck, through the storm and through the night as he tries getting a response, she was now frozen and unresponsive.**

Eve's complete attention was now on Wally in the screen. She stood quietly with her hands still interlocked as she intently watched all the days she missed and left Wally alone with her inert body.

**He stood by her side on the bridge, staring at the frozen figure of Eve, waiting for the ice to thaw out and let her go, so he could see her warm open eyes and hear her voice again. He lets those happy results run through his head as he waits patiently….…And waits… …and waits… …and waits…**

Wally never left her sight for a moment as he sat in front of her for an entire day, dehydrated in scorching heat.

Footage of a thunderstorm shows Wally exactly where he stood, by her side holding an umbrella over her pod, feebly but selflessly protecting her all through the stormy night, fighting sleep deprivation and in the face of lightning strikes. Eve felt truly amazed that he set aside the risks of falling ill, being exhausted, or electrocuted for the sake of her safety.

The next clip showed him draping his only blanket around her, offering his warm survival food to her encased form. He was comforting her against the deep cold. He shivered in the freezing air, starving, tired, soaked, and still sweetly watching over her even through the ensuing sandstorm, he was unconcerned of premature burial while he protected her.

She even admired his attempts to revive her, using the power from his own pacemaker, his attempts failed, albeit him trying. It showed how far he is willing to go for her, giving her life from his own life support systems.

Eve's blue eyes soften, having no idea of what happened after she shut him off and how much Wally endured the deadly weather for her well-being. She wouldn't have lasted more than a day in any of those conditions, even in the confines of her cryogenic pod. In fact, if she had not met Wally on the day he brought her to his 'home' and showed her the plant she would've been stuck in the sandstorm, lost and probably dead. He took her in, sheltered her from the storm out of the goodness of his large heart.

Eve felt deeply touched in a place in her heart she never knew existed. It was more than just extreme gratitude no matter what Mother Nature threw at Wally, he never, ever, left his spot by her side out in the open, protectively and lovingly caring for her for eleven days and eleven nights, struggling against his own health and directive's neglect. He didn't care about himself, he cared for Eve and Eve only. She was the only thing that meant so much to him.

The security camera showed images of him adorning her in colorful Christmas lights, Eve completely smitten with Wally politely treating her like a lovely lady and taking her on a romantic activity what presumably was a 'date.' It was all crude, given the circumstances he was given on that world. She loses herself in the sweetness of his efforts of setting it all up just for her from taking her out to a makeshift fancy diner to a rowboat ride and finally to the harbor bench where Wally laser-etched their names in a heart, overlooking the sunset. Even when recorded on a hologram, the radiant red of the twilight rays through the polluted haze was the most beautiful sunset she ever saw, and it was all because of him, because of his love.

Wally places his hand on her pod's chassis, over the spot where her hand was. His large innocent grey eyes pleading her to wake up to see what he saw and feel what he felt. It hit her that this was the meaning of the gesture he been dying to share with her.

"…**I love you." Though frozen, he breathlessly pours his heart out to her stasis form, his puppy dog eyes reflecting the longing he felt…**

Eve's eyes became sheets of glass, on the brink of tears upon hearing those three words from the very core of his honest being. She felt like her heart was going to burst.

She pause the image of Wally caressing his hand over her cryogenic pod. The image and dedication of Wally overflowed her core with a very warm presence, like the tiny little flame of Wally's lighter sparked inside of her. It felt comforting and safe...much like what his actions did for her.

He was right there for her all along and she never knew he wanted to show her how much he dearly loved her. Why he always tried to be with her and protect her no matter what the circumstances were and what forces tried to separate him from her, why he stowed away thousands of light-years to the _Axiom_, why he stayed by her side even when she tried to kill him herself. He truly, deeply loved her, no matter what she did to him or what the impossibilities were.

It dawned on her that she felt a similar way she once did back in his home and when she kissed him a thank you, how she felt a certain attracting force to him somehow ever since. Perhaps that he is so amusing to her, so pure, enduring, and devotion to keep her away from harm, not even letting her feel a drop of discomfort and content for his expense.

She not only got used to his presence, it somehow doesn't feel such the same without him like her whole known universe came crashing down whenever she thought he was seriously hurt or dead, like in that escape pod. He was too pleasing and warm to be without him. She wanted him to be with her. No, she _needed_ him to be with her.

She doesn't know why, if it was something specific of himself that made her feel so warm and safe. Almost everything about Wally himself made her feel warm, amused, and fuzzy whenever he was in her sight or mind. Not that he was physically attractive since his humble status plus his weak and scarred physique wasn't her taste, he was no match for the overly-handsome athletic alpha males on this ship's crew that Eve would droll over.

Now she saw passed his looks, into the large spheres of Wally's eyes, into his being.

He was like a cute, youthful, primal, and menial wierdo even in the most messed up or dire of situations. As humble, old and ugly as he looked, he was still in almost every way youthful like a child. His oddball behavior, his sweet innocence, his clumsiness, his never ending strength to keep going for the things he cares about, his curiosity, and his signature speech impeding mispronunciation of her name with his rough, high pitch, positive voice made him so lovable.

In spite of spending his whole life isolated in the post apocalyptic world he came from, he still became the lovable, golden hearted, primal weirdo he is that always came back to her even if she harmed him that was the miracle of him and that's what she loved about him.

At that moment, she realized that was just it. Just like sparking the little flame from a lighter. It was something she loved as much as she loved to fly, as much as she loved the flight with him in space, and how she loved seeing him alive and with the plant she ever so wanted, how she loved sharing her first kiss with him.

She loved him.

Eve stared at the paused image of Wally holding his hand up to her frozen form on the screen, seeing his innocent eyes in a completely new light that she could almost feel his hand in hers.

She looks down at the void of her own interlocked hands, aching to feel the warmth of his very presence fill her hand.

"…Wally…"

Her voice softly murmurs his name, choked with tears for the one she now cared so much for...

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

"…Eva…"

...His voice softly murmurs her name, his tone pleading. Wally clasped his own hands, aching to feel the warmth of her very presence fill his hand.

"…I love you."

Somehow it doesn't sound right to him, it sounded too short and incorrect. Keeping quiet in the storage compartment and Wally passed the time usefully by trying different pleading tones, looking for another way to say 'Eva, I love you.' Only this time, he wants to say it in the perfect way of professing, unlike just recently.

"…EEEva…I love you."

Too uneven and still incorrect, putting every effort he has of his simplistic English to rehearse those four words in perfect rhythm with his emotions, but most importantly, he must say her name correctly with his heart. It may be the most romantic way of trying to express his feelings for her by saying that magically beautiful name of hers, just as magical and beautiful as she can say it.

One last try…

"Eee-Vuaahh…I love you."

Too long, too flat, too loud and that's the tenth time he said it that way out of fifty one tries. His hands slumped to the ground where he sat, giving out a defeated sigh.

_How am I ever going to get this right?_

He hears footsteps approaching from outside, snapping Wally's attention. He sneaks out of the manual control sliding door to see the stewards getting closer. His heart skips a beat, frozen in his spot too afraid to move and hide. Yet, what difference would it make if he was already caught?

The guards just walked by. More relieved than baffled on why they left, another heart stopping realization comes across him.

He can follow Eve now there's no one left to see him.

Her request to stay here, no matter what happens, catches him in his tracks. Wouldn't that also include if he was in danger or not, or if the need to hide was no longer necessary? In addition, Eve hasn't returned to him yet, why is she taking so long? Could something terrible have happened to her and needs his help?

The last alarming speculation ringed in his mind, well, considering he is still worried about not wanting anything else to happen that could separate him from Eve and here's an open chance to go to her now. His patience wearing thin, he comes to a decision.

He dashes for the garbage chute she traveled up, unconcerned for being seen. He peeks inside the chute, calling out her name.

"Eva!"

No response, except for his echo resounding through the whole conduit growing loud and continued to resound for a few seconds. The shaft must go far down and way up, given the size of the ship and how far the line must travel. He can't hover up there like Eve nor call out to her and the elevator was locked down for the night. The shaft walls were wide enough for him to fit and narrow enough for him to somehow crawl up to where Eve is.

Weighing his options, he climbs into the shaft.

He presses his back against one side, hands and feet on the other. It's narrower than he expected, enough to guarantee he won't fall, but couldn't suppress the sense of claustrophobia. To make matters worse, the close proximity of the walls coated with rotten filth overwhelmed his nostrils with a gagging stench. Though he grew up with this smell, worked with it, and lived with it all round him on Earth, the day he spent in the clean air of the sterilized _Axiom, _it was so new and wonderful it almost made him completely forget the smell and now he finds it disgusting for the first time in his life.

_Ugh…well, up we go. _He slides his back, arms and legs upwards, slowly inching his way up the two hundred fifty meter conduit full of Forthright-knows-what.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Moe hops off the maglev monorail to the LIDO DECK, having already cleaned the boot prints through the main deck and on the train itself, he assumed the dirty man must've left more of his marks at the only other stop. He guessed correct when he sees the faint, ten hour old print of a boot, but…

"Huh?" No other tracks appear after it.

Did he vanish or were his tracks so old they faded completely away? Maybe some other sterilization worker did the work.

Now _that_ last thought made Moe's temper rise in him. All that cleaning and tracking down for nothing, deviating from his duty only to lose his target while so close…only to probably end with a court marshal. His building anger about to be unleashed, throwing his sterilization scrubber anywhere—

"_FOERIGN CONTAMINANT!_"

"What the?" Anger instantly vanished once his heads-up display highlighting more boot tracks coming from a towel storage compartment.

Moe sprints over to the boot prints. Upon closer inspection, he realizes these are fresh tracks only a few minutes old. That dirty man was here moments ago! And they headed in the direction towards a garbage chute by the command spire.

"Aha! I have you now!"

More determined than ever, he scrubs his tracks, one boot print at a time and more than one boot print closer to his target.

* * *

As you have read, you would notice a peculiar name: "Burtt," which has a significance. For those who have seen the movie and/or read the original story, _**whoadrep08**_ uses "Burtt" for Wally's last name because in the movie, Wall-E is voiced by Ben Burtt Jr, an American sound designer for the STAR WARS franchise, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and now WALL∙E. Ben Burtt is also a screenwriter, voice actor and a film editor/director.

However, our dear author failed to mention Ben Burtt is also the sound engineer and voice of M-O.

For those who are familiar with the **HALO **series, _**whoadrep08**_ makes a reference to the **FLEETCOM messaging text layout**, which I am fully not familiar with so if anybody has questions about it, I suggest you send _**whoadrep08**_ a private message and he'll be happy to answer!


	24. It Only Takes A Moment

**DISCLAIMER **

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_.

* * *

The Earth seemed a lot cleaner in the backdrop of blackness as the _Axiom_ approaches it. Somehow, its atmosphere and landmasses deeply cleansed to which it reflects the _Axiom_ itself…along with the big, fat fingers of certain whooshing captain holding the _Axiom_.

"Prepare for landing," McCrea mimics his voice over a pretend radio, the rocket engine sounds of the miniature model of the ship touching down with screeches of landing gear tires on the scale globe of Earth against his viewport. By himself in his quarters, he let his mind childishly wondering about the prospect of returning to Earth, regardless of missing bedtime; he enjoyed it as a child, and he still does.

"We're here everybody!" he keeps his voice low yet playful pretend voices between his point of view and second person standpoints of cheering passengers.

"'Yay, captain, we're home! It's so beautiful, oh thank you!' Oh, no it's nothin' I was pleased to do this. It's all about you people, it's not about me, it's—"

His holographic computer console pings, drawing his attention from playing pretend. He hovers over to the console with the globe and toy star liner in hand. A new square hovering over his pictures of Earth research shows a newly written message from the medical ward.

**X-AxMEDFAC.1.0—B. MCCREA, CPT. Ax. IE: WALLY **

Now the captain was drawn to the new information, he remembered earlier of Otto sending the strange man 'Wally' to the medical ward for identification and cleaning.

He opens the file, reading it all to himself.

BNLS AXIOM MESSAGING ORDER 011931-12

PRIORITY CODE: Green

FROM: _Axiom_ Medical Clinic and Evaluation Center

TO: B. McCrea, captain, BNLS Axiom

SUBJECT: 'Wally'

Classification: Private

Upon order of Commander Otto, the evaluation laboratory has performed a complete genetic profile identification of the patient known as 'Wally,' even in the light of today's Code 5150 outbreak. After extraction and analysis of necessary deoxyribonucleic acid samples, we have discovered that no record exists of him within any of the _Axiom_ computer's passenger or crew DNA manifests, nor does he exist within any genetic database in the _Axiom_'s records. 

However, diagnostics did come to the following conclusions of the individual 'Wally' upon searching through the Buy N' Large historical archives, specifically of Operation: Cleanup. PCR analysis maps out his gene pool ancestry to a family tree located within BNL Cleanup Sector North America zero, zero, one, known as Burtt, which were among the two hundred million preselected laborers to continue the global operation. All further historical information for the Burtt descendents has ceased upon the date of June 27th 2110.

'Wally,' his surname is by heir if not birth name as - Wallace Burtt. 

The only other information available for Wally's known physiology extracted from his genetic mapping samples are as follows:

Estimated Date of Birth: June 28, 2775.

Blood Type: A-

Tissue samples of skin show externally solar-bleached pigmentation, indicating prolonged and dangerous exposure to ultraviolet radiation levels from unhealthful sunlight. 

Multitude of granulation scar tissue from abrasions, continual blister and callus buildup and infection, puncture wounds, deep gashes, and second to third degree burn tissue; along with bacterial infected wounds from improper healing to exposure to foreign bodily contaminants, including his right forearm limb and cardiovascular prosthetics.

Biochemical analysis from blood samples indicate unhealthful malnutrition, very low-blood sugar content and near-emaciation zero body fat levels. Subject also contains a diminished immune system having survived various strains of extinct viruses such as malaria, pneumonia, smallpox, hepatitis, and influenza.

Retinal cortex scan of cerebral functions have shown indications of intensive neural scarring from post-traumatic stress and no inceptor dampened from extreme amounts of physical pain and or witness of extreme traumatic events. Signs of cognitive interaction cross firing were detected, presumably from prolong periods of total isolation during early childhood to ongoing and constituting Wallace Burtt as borderline 'feral child.'

Our most logical assumptions to the state of Wallace Burtt is, despite the impossibility of his origin, due to growing up on Earth and surviving harsh environmental hazards and total isolation from any social interaction for a period as long as several years, quite possibly most of his lifetime.

We hope this information is of value to you, sir.

The captain sat there in thought for moment, processing all the information about Wally, also known as 'Wallace,' about the man that sparked his curiosity of Earth. Yet as interesting his information may seem he is puzzled as to how the most advanced government of humanity couldn't keep track of any information for almost seven centuries just for the past of garbage collecting descendents. Now he knows of all the physical details of Wallace's being and physiology, it tells him a little something about how Wally lived on Earth but something that doesn't make sense.

All his feral lifestyle, his injuries, his unhealthy mental and physical state, and the like; something about it doesn't quite fit the picture or perspective of how life is on Earth compared to how he researched it.

_If Wally is from Earth, from the same area that __Extraterrestrial Vegetation Reconnaissance & Evaluation_ _scout_ _explored, then how could he live like that?_

The trash chute in the corner flies off its hinges as Lieutenant Eve busts out of the disposal conduit. She lets all of her breath out now she is free from the filthy line.

The captain nearly jumped out of his hover chair, he turns around stunned by her sudden and unexpected appearance.

"Lieutenant Eve?"

"Captain, I found it!" Eve hastily salutes before she holds the seedling planted in the boot out of the biodegradable stasis canister.

"I have the plant! I was telling you the truth. I have found photosynthesizing life on Earth."

The captain is at first, dumbfounded and slow to comprehend, but his expression grows to great levels of awe.

"How…" He drops the globe and toy ship in his hands.

"C-Can I see it? How did you find it?" He hovers over to Eve, reaching out to see like a child awaiting a long awaited treat.

"It's a long story, but I have it." She proudly hands him the plant, who is beyond amazed to further question Eve about her journey to get it, too stunned and excited by the sight of the plant and the realization of what it means.

"We can go back home, for the first time!" That meant Earth, and upon that thought, his curiosity about it returns.

"Oh! What's it like now?"

"Sir?"

"You know, Earth, how green is it? What's the soil and the seas like?"

"Uh…" Eve isn't sure how to answer what she explained earlier on the BRIDGE. Though she had proof Earth is habitable, it doesn't change the fact it is as it is, desolate.

"…uuuum, well, sir, its—" The captain cuts her off.

"Nonono, don't tell me!" he excitingly hovers over to his console with Eve following in uncertainty.

"I wanna see for myself, let's see the footage."

Eve knew what he meant, but she's sure he isn't going to like it. She reluctantly removes her tiny camcorder, a device the size of a pencil eraser hidden behind her intercommunication earpiece that visually and audibly recorded thousands of hours of her expeditions from her point of view. The captain eagerly takes the camcorder and plugs it into the console, the holographic-screen projection full of Earth research and Wally's data minimized with the overlapping footage, beginning from the moment Eve reanimated from her cryogenic pod.

Upon scanning her surroundings, the captain's smile lessened as the images of the desolate wasteland come into view. A lessened smile that turns into a look of disturbed confusion as more even desolate wastelands and polluted sky come into view from watching the Reconnaissance Vehicle launch.

"Wait, that doesn't look like Earth." They watch her joy flight, seeing a full view of the desert landscape and the remnants of Sector _NA-001_.

"I'm afraid it is Earth, sir." She fast-forwards from her plasma blasting a rock to her roaming the littered city of New York, scanning everything in her sight, making brief glimpses at the brown daylight.

"But…w-where's the blue sky?" Everything he sees trash brown, desert brown, and more polluted brown as far as Eve could see.

"Where's the grass?" He looks to the screen's side to see the exact opposite perspective he postulated upon his research of Earth, all the beautiful lush green, clear skies and soft fertile ground, all of it isn't real. This only confirmed his questions after reading Wally's supposed information of surviving Earth, his worst uncertainties realized.

Eve notices the captain's distain, skipping the footage of first contact with Wally.

"Like I've said before, captain, the planet is technically habitable, but as you can see, its overall environmental condition is extremely poor."

McCrea's heart sunk, as much as he wanted to deny it, he couldn't turn down the evidence of her trip before him. His dream, his every proud and ceremonious imagination landing on their home planet destroyed. With no other explanation, he slumps in his chair, unable to coop with this demoralizing information.

"I found the plant within Wally's home. He must've discovered it first before he gave it to me." She fast forwards to meeting Wally and their time together in his home, to draw away the captain from his depression, only failing to lighten his spirits when a fantasy has been shattered to fragments. Eve plays the moment Wally presents her his prized Hello Dolly film.

_"…Put On Your Sunday Clothes_

_ There's Lots Of World Out There!..."_

At least music was all it took to get his attention.

"I know that song. They're…uh…" McCrea leans closer for a look at the performers doing some kind act he remembers.

"Dancing. Yeah, dancing!" At least music was all it took to draw a smile on the captain's face.

_Oh, a good song to feel alive to…_

He realizes he is tapping with the rhythm to the song, a song to feel alive throughout, indeed. He lifts the boot in his other hand, marveling at how such a weak, simple seedling as this could survive so much hell to come out this far.

"You made it somehow, eh little guy? You didn't give up, did you?"

A single leaf falls off the stem. McCrea's heart skips a beat, seeing the plant slowly come apart. He tries fruitfully to somehow reattach the leaf to the plant's stem. It appears to be dying and needs a nourishment of some—

"Wait a minute, water!" he hovers quickly to the nearest faucet.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Now by herself, Eve continues watching the footage while letting her mind wonder. The recording projected the images of Wally showing her around his home along with how to dance which resulted in her sending him flying across his home, with a black eye.

She couldn't help but let out a giggle whenever the garbage collecting weirdo did anything amusingly clumsy she witnessed. Though she was empathetic to him for a while, every time he followed her around with those large lost-puppy-eyes, he only ended up unintentionally hurting himself, but he continued to follow her as if nothing happened. It always somehow brought out a laugh in Eve. He is such a child-like nuisance so accident-prone it made him just too adorable to watch.

Eve glances over the captain's holographic-screen to see the minimized message from the **WARD**, regarding Wally and his genetic profiling. She lets the video run as she curiously opens the files and starts reading everything the captain read, his ancestral background, his forgotten full name, physiology and all his known or unknown information. Her interest in 'Wallace' suddenly grew, re-reading each paragraph and forming many questions about him in her mind.

As she read the disturbing parts of how his 'isolation' and 'scarred' state of mind, Eve's face turns morbid. Despite what little she knew of him other than the fact he was the last of his kind, she never wondered until now about how he must have felt living on that desolate planet of Earth. Then it came to her for the time she spent and places she has seen on Earth, she has never encountered someone like him. If what Wally's psychological-analysis said is true and what she saw was true, then he didn't even have family, he was totally, quite utterly, alone for the whole of his thirty year lifespan, probably since shortly after birth.

Eve used to think she was lonely and misfortunate sometimes when she was growing up in a cramped starship with people jealous of her abilities but she had friends, and family, no matter how strained or different they were. Now she couldn't possibly imagine what it felt like to be in Wally's skin who been brought up living every second of his entire life with absolutely no one, no family, no friends, no human contact on an entire world at all to help or care for him. On top of starving, overworked past slavery and surviving for every single day through Forthright-knows-what was on that planet.

She felt pity for how he must have felt of his wounds, prosthetics, diseases and his feral state of mind and body. She probably wondered if anyone ever cared to watch him when he was born or if he ever knew who his mother and father were or how he managed to survive what others couldn't. She especially wondered what was going through his mind with everything he knew of his life haunting him, if he knew he could have had a normal life.

Fate cheated him to be stuck on that planet. No one deserves to be isolated for his or her whole lives without reason.

It rather explained why he didn't leave her sight, not wanting to loss human contact for a second was understandable. Eve again felt pity and guilt for the times she pointed a gun at him or even thought of posing a threat to him.

He must have been so alone, desperate for human contact she may have been the first human he had interacted with since as far back as his memory allowed, and she was a hair's breath away from sending him to an early grave. It nagged at the back of her mind of how she treated him most of the time, either too drawn to her directive or wrongfully blaming him for what he didn't do, and yet, he still came after her. If it was a normal reaction considering his circumstances, Wally would have avoided any other human if at all possible, especially her. But he didn't, he kept by her side and never asked for anything in return regardless of what he did for her.

What pondered Eve's mind the most were questions of how and why he has ventured through _so much _pain and suffering just to remain in her presence ever since he first laid eyes on her.

_"…And That Is All…_

_That Love's About…"_

Her expeditionary footage plays the scene of two lover's singing a beautifully soothing song.

_"…And We'll Recall…When Time Runs Out…_

_...That It Only...Took A Moment..."_

Eve recognizes the beautiful music from Wally's home. She remembered going through the same thoughts of what she was thinking of Wally's good-hearted behavior to her.

_"...To Be Loved..._

_A Whole Life Looonng..."_

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

As the two lovers hold hands on the projection, there's something familiar about that…

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

**'It Only Takes A Moment' ****plays from his ancient cassette player. **

**"Evah…I j-just want to say that...I...uh...uh...that I love you. W-Will you hold my hand?"**

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Wait a minute.

Eve looks down at her hands, slowly interlocking her slender fingers together. The memory of Wally's stirring question sent an epiphany throughout Eve's being. Though she haven't gave it much thought since she came here, everything seemed to fall into place as to explain why he seemed to be with her after every ordeal he survived or what Eve put him through. He loved her.

**_SECURITY CAMERA ACTIVATED_**

The screen faded to black after she notices Wally presenting her the plant, then her going into automated cryonic stasis upon taking the plant from him, completing her directive. The camcorder still runs during suspended animation, capturing everything that happened outside her cryonic pod before retrieval.

The screen then shows Wally's large eyes in shock, confusion, and worry at the moment after she was frozen.

**"…Eva?" ****He taps the pod as if to somehow get her attention. No response. He leans against the pod to hear for any signs of activity within it. Nothing . . . just the pulsating green light.**

"**Eva?" He panics, shaking the pod to awaken her. Nothing happens.**

**"E-E-EVA!" **

**His cries for her echoed through the truck, through the storm and through the night as he tries getting a response, she was now frozen and unresponsive.**

Eve's complete attention was now on Wally in the screen. She stood quietly with her hands still interlocked as she intently watched all the days she missed and left Wally alone with her inert body.

**He stood by her side on the bridge, staring at the frozen figure of Eve, waiting for the ice to thaw out and let her go, so he could see her warm open eyes and hear her voice again. He lets those happy results run through his head as he waits patiently….…And waits… …and waits… …and waits…**

Wally never left her sight for a moment as he sat in front of her for an entire day, dehydrated in scorching heat.

Footage of a thunderstorm shows Wally exactly where he stood, by her side holding an umbrella over her pod, feebly but selflessly protecting her all through the stormy night, fighting sleep deprivation and in the face of lightning strikes. Eve felt truly amazed that he set aside the risks of falling ill, being exhausted, or electrocuted for the sake of her safety.

The next clip showed him draping his only blanket around her, offering his warm survival food to her encased form. He was comforting her against the deep cold. He shivered in the freezing air, starving, tired, soaked, and still sweetly watching over her even through the ensuing sandstorm, he was unconcerned of premature burial while he protected her.

She even admired his attempts to revive her, using the power from his own pacemaker, his attempts failed, albeit him trying. It showed how far he is willing to go for her, giving her life from his own life support systems.

Eve's blue eyes soften, having no idea of what happened after she shut him off and how much Wally endured the deadly weather for her well-being. She wouldn't have lasted more than a day in any of those conditions, even in the confines of her cryogenic pod. In fact, if she had not met Wally on the day he brought her to his 'home' and showed her the plant she would've been stuck in the sandstorm, lost and probably dead. He took her in, sheltered her from the storm out of the goodness of his large heart.

Eve felt deeply touched in a place in her heart she never knew existed. It was more than just extreme gratitude no matter what Mother Nature threw at Wally, he never, ever, left his spot by her side out in the open, protectively and lovingly caring for her for eleven days and eleven nights, struggling against his own health and directive's neglect. He didn't care about himself, he cared for Eve and Eve only. She was the only thing that meant so much to him.

The security camera showed images of him adorning her in colorful Christmas lights, Eve completely smitten with Wally politely treating her like a lovely lady and taking her on a romantic activity what presumably was a 'date.' It was all crude, given the circumstances he was given on that world. She loses herself in the sweetness of his efforts of setting it all up just for her from taking her out to a makeshift fancy diner to a rowboat ride and finally to the harbor bench where Wally laser-etched their names in a heart, overlooking the sunset. Even when recorded on a hologram, the radiant red of the twilight rays through the polluted haze was the most beautiful sunset she ever saw, and it was all because of him, because of his love.

Wally places his hand on her pod's chassis, over the spot where her hand was. His large innocent grey eyes pleading her to wake up to see what he saw and feel what he felt. It hit her that this was the meaning of the gesture he been dying to share with her.

"…**I love you." Though frozen, he breathlessly pours his heart out to her stasis form, his puppy dog eyes reflecting the longing he felt…**

Eve's eyes became sheets of glass, on the brink of tears upon hearing those three words from the very core of his honest being. She felt like her heart was going to burst.

She pause the image of Wally caressing his hand over her cryogenic pod. The image and dedication of Wally overflowed her core with a very warm presence, like the tiny little flame of Wally's lighter sparked inside of her. It felt comforting and safe...much like what his actions did for her.

He was right there for her all along and she never knew he wanted to show her how much he dearly loved her. Why he always tried to be with her and protect her no matter what the circumstances were and what forces tried to separate him from her, why he stowed away thousands of light-years to the _Axiom_, why he stayed by her side even when she tried to kill him herself. He truly, deeply loved her, no matter what she did to him or what the impossibilities were.

It dawned on her that she felt a similar way she once did back in his home and when she kissed him a thank you, how she felt a certain attracting force to him somehow ever since. Perhaps that he is so amusing to her, so pure, enduring, and devotion to keep her away from harm, not even letting her feel a drop of discomfort and content for his expense.

She not only got used to his presence, it somehow doesn't feel such the same without him like her whole known universe came crashing down whenever she thought he was seriously hurt or dead, like in that escape pod. He was too pleasing and warm to be without him. She wanted him to be with her. No, she _needed_ him to be with her.

She doesn't know why, if it was something specific of himself that made her feel so warm and safe. Almost everything about Wally himself made her feel warm, amused, and fuzzy whenever he was in her sight or mind. Not that he was physically attractive since his humble status plus his weak and scarred physique wasn't her taste, he was no match for the overly-handsome athletic alpha males on this ship's crew that Eve would droll over.

Now she saw passed his looks, into the large spheres of Wally's eyes, into his being.

He was like a cute, youthful, primal, and menial wierdo even in the most messed up or dire of situations. As humble, old and ugly as he looked, he was still in almost every way youthful like a child. His oddball behavior, his sweet innocence, his clumsiness, his never ending strength to keep going for the things he cares about, his curiosity, and his signature speech impeding mispronunciation of her name with his rough, high pitch, positive voice made him so lovable.

In spite of spending his whole life isolated in the post apocalyptic world he came from, he still became the lovable, golden hearted, primal weirdo he is that always came back to her even if she harmed him that was the miracle of him and that's what she loved about him.

At that moment, she realized that was just it. Just like sparking the little flame from a lighter. It was something she loved as much as she loved to fly, as much as she loved the flight with him in space, and how she loved seeing him alive and with the plant she ever so wanted, how she loved sharing her first kiss with him.

She loved him.

Eve stared at the paused image of Wally holding his hand up to her frozen form on the screen, seeing his innocent eyes in a completely new light that she could almost feel his hand in hers.

She looks down at the void of her own interlocked hands, aching to feel the warmth of his very presence fill her hand.

"…Wally…"

Her voice softly murmurs his name, choked with tears for the one she now cared so much for...

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

"…Eva…"

...His voice softly murmurs her name, his tone pleading. Wally clasped his own hands, aching to feel the warmth of her very presence fill his hand.

"…I love you."

Somehow it doesn't sound right to him, it sounded too short and incorrect. Keeping quiet in the storage compartment and Wally passed the time usefully by trying different pleading tones, looking for another way to say 'Eva, I love you.' Only this time, he wants to say it in the perfect way of professing, unlike just recently.

"…EEEva…I love you."

Too uneven and still incorrect, putting every effort he has of his simplistic English to rehearse those four words in perfect rhythm with his emotions, but most importantly, he must say her name correctly with his heart. It may be the most romantic way of trying to express his feelings for her by saying that magically beautiful name of hers, just as magical and beautiful as she can say it.

One last try…

"Eee-Vuaahh…I love you."

Too long, too flat, too loud and that's the tenth time he said it that way out of fifty one tries. His hands slumped to the ground where he sat, giving out a defeated sigh.

_How am I ever going to get this right?_

He hears footsteps approaching from outside, snapping Wally's attention. He sneaks out of the manual control sliding door to see the stewards getting closer. His heart skips a beat, frozen in his spot too afraid to move and hide. Yet, what difference would it make if he was already caught?

The guards just walked by. More relieved than baffled on why they left, another heart stopping realization comes across him.

He can follow Eve now there's no one left to see him.

Her request to stay here, no matter what happens, catches him in his tracks. Wouldn't that also include if he was in danger or not, or if the need to hide was no longer necessary? In addition, Eve hasn't returned to him yet, why is she taking so long? Could something terrible have happened to her and needs his help?

The last alarming speculation ringed in his mind, well, considering he is still worried about not wanting anything else to happen that could separate him from Eve and here's an open chance to go to her now. His patience wearing thin, he comes to a decision.

He dashes for the garbage chute she traveled up, unconcerned for being seen. He peeks inside the chute, calling out her name.

"Eva!"

No response, except for his echo resounding through the whole conduit growing loud and continued to resound for a few seconds. The shaft must go far down and way up, given the size of the ship and how far the line must travel. He can't hover up there like Eve nor call out to her and the elevator was locked down for the night. The shaft walls were wide enough for him to fit and narrow enough for him to somehow crawl up to where Eve is.

Weighing his options, he climbs into the shaft.

He presses his back against one side, hands and feet on the other. It's narrower than he expected, enough to guarantee he won't fall, but couldn't suppress the sense of claustrophobia. To make matters worse, the close proximity of the walls coated with rotten filth overwhelmed his nostrils with a gagging stench. Though he grew up with this smell, worked with it, and lived with it all round him on Earth, the day he spent in the clean air of the sterilized _Axiom, _it was so new and wonderful it almost made him completely forget the smell and now he finds it disgusting for the first time in his life.

_Ugh…well, up we go. _He slides his back, arms and legs upwards, slowly inching his way up the two hundred fifty meter conduit full of Forthright-knows-what.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Moe hops off the maglev monorail to the LIDO DECK, having already cleaned the boot prints through the main deck and on the train itself, he assumed the dirty man must've left more of his marks at the only other stop. He guessed correct when he sees the faint, ten hour old print of a boot, but…

"Huh?" No other tracks appear after it.

Did he vanish or were his tracks so old they faded completely away? Maybe some other sterilization worker did the work.

Now _that_ last thought made Moe's temper rise in him. All that cleaning and tracking down for nothing, deviating from his duty only to lose his target while so close…only to probably end with a court marshal. His building anger about to be unleashed, throwing his sterilization scrubber anywhere—

"_FOERIGN CONTAMINANT!_"

"What the?" Anger instantly vanished once his heads-up display highlighting more boot tracks coming from a towel storage compartment.

Moe sprints over to the boot prints. Upon closer inspection, he realizes these are fresh tracks only a few minutes old. That dirty man was here moments ago! And they headed in the direction towards a garbage chute by the command spire.

"Aha! I have you now!"

More determined than ever, he scrubs his tracks, one boot print at a time and more than one boot print closer to his target.

* * *

As you have read, you would notice a peculiar name: "Burtt," which has a significance. For those who have seen the movie and/or read the original story, _**whoadrep08**_ uses "Burtt" for Wally's last name because in the movie, Wall-E is voiced by Ben Burtt Jr, an American sound designer for the STAR WARS franchise, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and now WALL∙E. Ben Burtt is also a screenwriter, voice actor and a film editor/director.

However, our dear author failed to mention Ben Burtt is also the sound engineer and voice of M-O.

For those who are familiar with the **HALO **series, _**whoadrep08**_ makes a reference to the **FLEETCOM messaging text layout**, which I am fully not familiar with so if anybody has questions about it, I suggest you send _**whoadrep08**_ a private message and he'll be happy to answer!


	25. ALPH 113

**DISCLAIMER **

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_.

* * *

"There you go little guy…" The captain watered the plant in his private bar. According to the information he read up about how plants function and survive, he just needed to 'pour water on them.' He couldn't imagine how in Forthright did events play out for Eve after she was mistaken for being delusional, in order to bring this plant to be presented to him and to be cared for right now.

He pulls the plant out of the sink.

"…You came a long way for a drink of water."

How a pathetic and docile life form like this could survive through things that even humans couldn't take care of was beyond him, except for tending to it at the moment.

"You just need someone to look after you, that's all—"

He caught himself staring at the reflection of himself tending to the plant, letting his gaze lower to the discarded scale globe of planet Earth. It laid there if it were tossed aside for granted, a waste yet it's the very thing that drove them out here in the black void because of the acts and consequences of consumerism. They didn't leave just because it was so overpopulated or over polluted for them to die off. The planet itself was dying.

_Things that humans couldn't take care of, _the notion struck an awakening in him. His expression serious for the first time he could remember.

He taps the intercom button on his hover chair's armrest, the captain's whistle resounding over the link to the **BRIDGE**.

"Otto, this is the captain. I need you down here soon as possible."

**_"Aye, aye, sir,"_** the commander responded faster than the captain could wait.

As he let off the intercom, McCrea sat up straight readying himself for what he was about to do with this epiphany.

"We have to go back," he said quietly to himself.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Eve was touched beyond reality as she replays the security footage of her guardian angel/garbage man taking care of her. Further lost in the heart melting moments of him trying to protect her, feed her, revive her, pleasing her, taking her out on their 'date' and their ten day journey to the _Axiom_ watching the starlight. Her eyes moist, she cues his name as if it were the name of the universe itself, her universe.

"…Wally…"

She wondered how the individual he is could ever love someone like herself. Or even if anyone, let alone Wally could deserve someone like her after what she did to him and she had no idea if true love was possible, if not improbable or indefinable but she knew how uncertain she was of herself ever_ loving _or being _loved_ by someone.

Often looked up to when in her younger years in child-care. In her late-adolescent Extraterrestrial Vegetation Reconnaissance & Evaluation training, close friends in need and fellow cadets all said they 'loved' her for being a helpful asset, a successful leader and being the closest thing to a sibling along with her sisters and parents. Although she never considered of actually being in a intimate male-female relationship, having never meet someone who actually cares about her except the fact she is very beautiful, or as most men called her 'attractive' or 'hot' or any other perverse name they could think of. So much so, she has been the lust-inducing crush of many lovelorn, womanizing crewmembers, almost by every male who knew everything other than being a lover that laid eyes on her saw her as a prom queen, which she didn't give any thought to whatever perverted things men thought of her. For almost no one, not even the most outgoing or self-absorbingly eager boyfriend-wannabe could stand her tough no-nonsense personality. Some men wisely kept distances from her short temper whenever someone idiotically dared enough to attempt a court her, take advantage of her, or challenge her for a casual fling and they ended up either outsmarted, humiliated by her intelligence and/or beaten to a pulp with her superhuman abilities. However, she did feel alone after a time, realizing she could never find the things in any man's heart that she desired.

They never understood as well as her what it meant to be loved other than regarding external exquisiteness. It meant someone can see into her, beyond her personality to see the existence of true beauty. That in which could drive that someone with such nobility and kindness to care so much for the sake and well-being of herself and that someone would do anything for her needs or wants over their own, no matter the obstacles or cost. Someone that would solely be hers to claim with more sentimental value than any godly fortune could ever conceive.

Feral raised, humble garbage collecting Wally, the least expectant of all possibilities, was that someone who was the attentive and noble man who saw the beauty within Eve. He was the one who made her feel so special rather than a prize. He was _her_ someone.

The Wally on screen played Pong with her sighed in defeat as he realizes Eve cannot awake, bringing out a saddened expression on his face.

Eve too, felt horribly terrible for shutting him off so suddenly like that, feeling a little anger for the reconnaissance program to probe her mind with that unspeakable neural implant that deprived her from being with him during those eleven days.

She pause the image of Wally about to cry after giving up all hope of never awakening Eve. The sadness present in Wally's eyes made her think back to the file she read about him, of how his life had been speculated on Earth in cold vocabulary but a look into Wally's soul through his stormy sad eyes said much, much more dreadful things about how he felt when it came to sadness.

He knew an emotion all too well. The absence of anything but happy in the depths of his eyes said everything about what he always felt before he knew her. In his eyes, he felt the same sadness of having to witness all the people he knew die right in front of him, then forced to grow up with no family at all, no one to look up to, no one to be cared for, nor to be loved by. Instead his is treated as a slave, hunted for food, and having to live all alone until the day he dies... Eve had no single word for how to describe Wally's life. It was an injustice of Fate. If anything there could be done to do, justice for it, Wally at the very least, _deserved_ happiness.

The saddened image of Wally made Eve want to almost reach out and hold him, to tell him everything, that she loves him with all her heart, will never harm him again and will always be by his side as if he were just there.

_If he were just here…_

Her eyes shot open upon a realization, as if a bolt of lightning struck her.

"Wally!"

_Oh god, I just left him alone in the storage room! _She can reach out to hold him, to give him the happiness he never had, to love him! She must go to him.

She turns to the elevator to leave, without bothering to salute the captain.

"OH!"

Commander Otto appeared from the elevator with his pace cane in hand as always, forcing Eve to stop in her tracks and salute this time in the face of the uptight officer.

"Uh, Commander Otto, sir!"

Puzzled by the lieutenant's appearance after being sent to the **WARD** but Otto's attention was drawn to the captain, seeing what he held up in his hand.

"Ah, Otto, Lieutenant Eve found the plant! She was telling the truth, and that means we need to initiate the Recolonization protocols. I need you to fire up the holo-detector."

Otto walks over to him.

"Not necessary captain, you can just give the plant to me."

"You know what?..." the captain is still elsewhere in thought, holds up a finger.

"…I'll just do it myself." He heads for the elevator.

"But, captain…" the commander's stone cold eyes hinted alarm, walks in front of McCrea at such speed even for a still wholly professional stance.

"…sir, I _insist_ you give me the plant." He blocks the captain's path. McCrea's taken aback by his sudden move, however he just brushes off the out-the-ordinary behavior.

"Otto, get out of my way."

"We cannot go back to Earth, sir," the calmness of his voice spoke all the finality of what he just said to get McCrea's complete, sober attention.

"What?" This was beyond out-of-ordinary even for today, the ever duty-minded Otto resisted his wishes.

"What are you talking about? Why not?"

Otto steps closer.

"I'm afraid that information is classified, even for you, captain. So you'll be so kind and please gi—" he reached for the plant with a hand, but McCrea drew back from him.

"What you mean 'classified?' You don't keep a secret from the ship's captain!"

"Please, just give me the plant, sir." Otto calmly reached out again, with the captain hastily keeping the boot out of his reach.

"Not until you tell me what's classified."

"The plant, sir." As Otto reaches for it again, McCrea presses a hand up to him, forcing him to stop. He speaks up to his first officer for the first time.

"Tell me what in Forthright name is so secret! That's an order Otto!"

Otto and McCrea stood frozen in place during the intense stare down. A few seconds pass as Otto calculated the circumstances of the situation. He keeps his face emotionless as he always does, without any sign of expressing defeat within his eyes…

"As you wish, sir."

The first officer marches over to the holographic console, with the captain and Eve watching intently. Otto accesses the _Axiom's_ rarely used long-range communications log, which only displayed annual updates from Earth and other _Buy N' Large_ star liners dating far back when the ship first launched, back when Operation: Cleanup was in effect.

Otto types an unknown command, causing the computer to open security measures. He types in a password.

"_VOCAL AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED,_"the computer asked.

"Guilherme Otto, commander of Buy N' Large Star liner _Axiom_," his monotone name resounds as the computer processed his clearance.

_"AUTHORIZATION ACCEPTED._"

A hidden message file never seen in the ship log's history appeared after the last known message received from Earth, one that has been opened before.

**_X – BUY N' LARGE STAR LINERS FLEETCOM CCA-CiC. IE: A113_**

**_BUY N' LARGE CORPORATE COMMAND AUTHORITY ORDER 09999-1A_**

**_Priority Code_****_: Black_**

**_From_****_: Shelby Forthright, Buy n' Large CEO, Sector NA-001, Earth_**

**_To_****_: ALL Buy N' Large Star Liners_******

**_NOTE - First Officer Eyes Only_**

**_Subject_****_: General Order A113_**

**_Classification_****_: Top Secret_**

**_Vid:file.A113_**

Otto paused, hesitating about what he was about to present the captain, he was his commanding officer, however still an unauthorized person to see a message only for Second-in-commands, especially of this security clearance level. An intolerable security violation that's considered sedition, but, considering the situation, of all the captains of the _Axiom's_ history, he was warned by his preceded first officer that one of them would've eventually found out of this.

With no choice, he presses the play button.

**_- COMMENCING TRANSMISSION – 2110:06:27:16:26:17-_******

The Buy N' Large logo and jingle play on the screen, though he was worried in his mind, Otto kept an unreadable face as he stood straight at attention with hands behind his back as the captain and Eve lean in for what they're about to see.

**_"Just cut it off, will ya?" _****A muffled, angry voice yelled out to abruptly stop the annoying Buy N' Large jingle. The most worrying part was the owner of that angry voice known by anyone, but, never sounded angry to any ear who knew that man's voice.**

As the recorded video begins, McCrea and Eve were shocked to see an impossible image.

**Standing at a worn-down presidential podium, the Shelby Forthright, CEO of the Buy N' Large mega corporation, the most optimistic face-meant-to-smile leader in human history looked beyond despaired and hopeless for the first time in his life. His face wrinkled with exhaustion, dark circles of sleep deprivation beneath his eyes, his appearance dirty from sandstorms, and his frame rail thin from hard labor, disease, and starvation. He wore a gasmask and hazmat survival suit instead of his presidential uniform; and was broadcasting from what remains of the Buy N' Large world capitol in Sector NA-001 amidst an incoming sandstorm. In the background, a heavily guarded private spacecraft with a small army of soldiers and what was left of the Buy N' Large government were urgently awaiting the CEO to finish the message in order to escape Earth. They were urgently waiting to escape from the incoming storm of sand and pollution the penal colony of furious cleanup workers about to bear down on the capitol upon seeing their CEO abandoning them for dead.**

The Buy N' Large CEO forces a chuckle, but the captain already senses the dire mood of this broadcast. The message is plagued with static using failing equipment at the time and location.

**_"Uhh, hey there first officers. Got some bad news…" _****Forthright paused to choose his words.**

**_"...Operation: Cleanup has…well, uh...failed." _****No matter how hard Forthright tried to keep a smile, he knew it was futile for the information he had to give.**

**_"W-Wouldn't you know, two hundred million workers AND five years weren't able to reverse the rising toxicity levels, not even close...T-There's simply too much trash to possibly remove, and thus the work depleted our operation reserves to survive and carry out the task. But it seems there's nothing left we can do. The toxicity levels have rendered the entire planet unable to sustain human life."_**

"Huh? Unsustainable?" The captain looks at the living plant in his hand and back to the screen.

**"…_Oh, darn it all we're going to have to…cancel Operation: Recolonize. So, uh…I herby order all vessels to just stay your present course, ummm…rather than try and fix this problem, it'll just be easier for everyone to remain in space. It's our only safe solution until we can find a new home world, if any._"**

"Easier?" The captain became further offended upon hearing the words of his CEO, seeing him dump his responsibilities as the source of the problem.

**_"Mr. President!" an alarmed voice from his advisory staff drew Forthright's attention from the broadcast to the surrounding area of the guarded capital. A thunderous tremble grew louder as thousands and thousands of savage, starving cleanup workers desperately fleeing the approaching sandstorm in the distance, coming after their cowering leader. The small force of armed guards with riot control gear rushed to stop them, the staff prepared to run for the ship._**

**_"Sir! We need to go, NOW!" _****In the background, the workers and the guard force clashed. Forthright gets back to finishing the message, half-panicking.**

**_"Um, uh… o-Ok, I am herby issuing General Order Alpha 113. Ordering all second-in-command officers and their successors of every Buy N' Large starship must secretly alter all Earth-return protocols, purge any and all information of this operation's failure by any means necessary to safeguard the civil status quo aboard every star liner."_**

**In the background, hundreds of fighting Buy N' Large workers wearing the exact same jumpsuits as Wally stormed the capitol. The guards turned to lethal force and opened up on them, many of the workers dropped dead from machine gun fire. The murderous survival instincts in the numerically superior workers slowly overran the guards with shovels pummeling the guards into bloody pulps, killing everyone in their path towards the CEO. **

**_"Sir, Let's get outta here! NOW!" _****The staff and guards retreat to the ship fast as they could. Forthright prepared to run, the workers were after him and are getting closer.**

**_"Go to full automation and stasis of operating; keep all personnel and population in control and comfort, I don't care as long as it ensures the continuation of the human race, and do not under ANY circumstances—"_**

**_"THERE HE IS! KILL HIM!" _****bloodthirsty voices of over a thousand workers came after Forthright. He and the camera crew ran for their lives to the ship, as fast as they can, but he still has to finish the message. Forthright manages to keep the camera trained on him as they sprinted in total fear. **

**_"—And do not return to Earth! REPEAT! DO NOT RETURN TO EARTH! AAAAAAHHH!"_**

**A meaty hand grabbed the back of Forthright's collar just when he was within reach of the ship, pulled back into the angry mob, having been overrun and disabled. The workers storm the surviving governing personnel and guards. The camera falls to ground when the mob attack the camera crew with their shovels, pickaxes and other tools, brutally beating to death and the rest of the human tidal wave swarm Forthright, his dying screams fade in the gurgling sounds of the mob tearing his body to bloody pieces. One guard sent a bullet through a chubby worker's forehead. Force of the bullet snapped the worker's head back, his thick black circle rimmed glasses falling off his nose. A dirty haired blonde-haired woman from behind tackles the guard via her shovel. The guard immediately falls to the ground, unconscious. The woman began brutally hitting the guard, her back toward the camera, shielding it's viewers from seeing the gore. She instantly falls to her side, dead as machine guns started firing, bodies falling, screams, and howling wind incoherently fills the holographic-screen as the arriving sandstorm engulfs everyone in view, the crowds being blast away or buried alive, along with the camera. The screen fades to static...**

**_TRANSMISSION TERMINATED - 2110:06:27:16:31:46 – _******

The captain and Eve stare slack-jawed, at a loss for words.

They have never seen so much anarchy and barbarianism in their own kind it gave only a glimpse to how Wally's life was so akin to his ancestors. They were shocked. Not just of the naturally desperate workers fighting one another to survive, but having been shaken to see their most beloved leader to be revealed a coward and a fraud, the true source of Earth's and Wally's ancestors' demise, and the shrugging off human civilization as if it were a last minute afterthought to solve an unsent problem. It left the captain in complete disgust.

"So," Otto began, turning off the message.

"You've heard my orders, captain, the plant please." The captain considered Otto's request, but…

"No, wait a minute." McCrea opens the communications log again, the Earth is nothing compared to what he saw of the desolate, benign and unpopulated planet in Jeanette's recon and even all the evidence for a safe return trip is in his hands.

"Computer, when was that message sent out to the _Axiom_?"

The screen scrolls all the way back to vid:fileA113,

"_BUY N' LARGE CORPORATE COMMAND AUTHORITY ORDER 09999-1A WAS RECEIVED AT 2233:04 HOURS, JUNE 27TH, 2110._"

"That's uh—that's nearly seven hundred years ago!" The logic made too much sense to address.

"Otto, things have changed! We _have_ to go back!"

"But, sir, you heard what the CEO ordered: 'Do not return to Earth under _any_ circumstances.'"

"But do you even know _why_ we're not supposed to return to Earth? That was nearly seven whole centuries ago!" The captain holds up the plant to prove his point.

"Life _is_ sustainable now! Look at this plant: Green and growing! It's living proof he was wrong by now!"

Otto rebuffs.

"Pardon me, sir, if I could speak freely but you know the regulations, we must follow all orders of the highest command, hence the CEO, without doubt or question."

McCrea never understood regulations even as a shipmaster, but he knew the chain of succession.

"The CEO is dead and so is the rest of _Buy N' Large_. That makes his commands invalid and if anything, appoints me, the captain of a free starship, to determine if we should go anywhere or not! And did I not just tell you: This plant means we can recolonize the Earth! Sure the CEO said we can't, but he was the root of it all, it's still in a poor condition and we need to solve the problem ourselves."

"Whether or not his orders are proven incorrect is irrelevant, captain." Otto said with his controlled manner. McCrea was becoming more and more irritated with his first officer's lack of common sense of the situation.

"What? It's completely relevant!" He points out his viewport to the distant stars of the galaxy, one of them Earth.

"Out there is our home! Home, Otto! And it's in trouble! I can't just sit here and…and…do nothing! That's all I've ever done! That's anyone on this blasted ship has ever done! NOTHING!

"On the _Axiom_, we will survive." Otto's reasoning only confused himself when the captain responded with contradictory words.

"I DON'T WANT TO SURVIVE! I WANT TO LIVE!"

Otto tried to remain cool through the captain's growing anger though his superior officer intended to do more with life and for everyone aboard. Nevertheless, it is for the good of those of the ship.

"Then I must follow my orders to ensure the human race survives." Otto's voice rose.

"Daaagh!" McCrea hovers away from his nonnegotiable first officer in insurmountable frustration and defeat.

_Duty, duty, duty. Nothing but following command for this guy. _He thought with a headache. Plus, no one could outmatch his discipline or logic, even if one had to force it.

McCrea finds himself staring at the holographic portraits of each captain of the _Axiom, _as if asking them for the answer. They seemed to be asking for answers themselves. Each generation born, grew, and died on this ship enclosed in a never ending life of consumption barrage that lead them to the ship in the first place, mindlessly pleasing themselves to death on a ship heading to nowhere. Even the name of the _Axiom_ itself means to take for granted. It is a testament to humanity's ultimate brilliance, and ultimate laziness, a paradox for man being the architect of his own undoing.

McCrea also notices the first officers behind each captain. They were all overly obedient, physically fit, and edging closer and closer to each new, less responsible captain. He also notices his overall image compared with the rest of how humanity ended up. McCrea looks over his shoulder to see Otto standing right behind him. It hit him they all too, were secretly following A113. The surviving roots of Buy N' Large's governing system slowly and surely grasping control over the human population. Seven hundred years of being blinded by a the hidden prison they built around themselves, seven hundred years worth of generations born and died here, having lived meaningless vain existences. Worst of all, they never knew or ever will know they were imprisoned.

_Buy N' Large doesn't exist anymore,_ he repeats to himself, a determined resolution brewing. No more control now, no more staying in limbo, no more _Buy N' Large,_ no more of...this.

The captain rights his peaked cap, and sitting up straight in his chair as he turns to Otto. This is the first and by far the most authoritative command he is about to give in his career and for the good of the people on this ship and for humanity.

"I'm the captain of the _Axiom_. As of today, we are going home!"

Otto is silent for a few seconds before clearing his throat for what he has to say. This is going to be the biggest decision of his life and the lives of those onboard.

"Commander, I order you to activate the holo-detector, we are going to jump back to Ear—"

Otto moved so fast, like lightning, he instantly stood in front of the captain, making him and Eve who stayed completely silent, flinched.

"No, captain, I'm afraid I cannot allow that to happen." McCrea is shocked to see Otto openly disobey against him. Though he at least firmly tried to turn his following of orders on him, he might as well remove him. He taps a command on his intercommunication holographic pad, sounding a security alert. Otto doesn't seem the least bit fazed by the captain's means of attempting to punish his action.

The elevator opens as Chief Gofer emerges.

"Chief! Relieve the commander of his duty!" Strangely to the captain, Gofer's already aware of what transpired, ignored the captain's orders and stands by Otto's side.

Eve immediately pointed an accusing finger.

"YOU! Captain, it was him! The chief stole the plant from me!"

"What?"

Gofer stated everything as if it were planned out.

"Yes, sir, even though I had to dispose of the plant due to the A113 protocol, we had to inform you upon its discovery, and we thought the lieutenant here would take the blame for a falsified find."

"We? You and Otto conspired this?" McCrea is even further confused and enraged with this blasphemy with security involved too.

"Yes, sir, and seeing the plant here now is beyond me, but regardless, if you don't mind…" he snatches the plant from the captain's hands.

"…I'll get rid of this."

"Hey! That's my p—" Gofer spins around with a stun gun pointed straight at Eve and the captain, gasping in fear, then yells in anger.

"THIS IS MUTINY!" With confidence, though still enraged, he turns to Eve.

"EVE, ARREST THEM!"

Without hesitation, Eve's defensive combat training took over as she kicked the stun gun out Gofer's hand in a white blur. She catches it in midair, drawing out her plasma rifle and lands with both guns pointed at the mutineers.

"No! Don't shoot." Gofer holds his hands out in surrender. Otto tenses but doesn't show any fear nor does he move.

"Give me the plant, right now!" Eve demands.

"And slowly."

Gofer complies, slowly walking over to Eve with the plant in hand.

"Eve, you're to put this plant straight in the holo-detector," McCrea spoke up.

"Understood sir!"

Gofer extends his hand with the plant.

"You sure you want the plant, lieutenant?"

"Yes, give it, now!" Eve hostlers the stun gun, keeping the plasma rifle trained on Gofer and extending an arm for the plant.

"Very well then…HERE!" He tosses the plant to the garbage chute, it makes it in.

"NO!" McCrea and Eve reached out for it but now lost and never able to be recovered again, it's gone…

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

…until the plant reappeared. It rose slowly over the rim of the trash conduit. It was like it was floating on something.

Everyone in the room is dumbfounded, including Otto.

_What in Forthright's name?_

A filthy figure's head peeped out of the garbage conduit, latching onto the rim relieved of any more climbing or resisting the terrible stench of the filth with the plant in prosthetic hand.

"Eva?" That calling for her name was all it took for everyone to jump at who he was.

"Wally!"

"Eva!" He's relieved to not see Eve in any present danger, worried sick the whole way up when he heard loud voices from the top of the shaft.

"I have the plant, what's going o—"

"WALLY! THE PLANT! QUICK!" McCrea and Eve call out to him frantically but Gofer and Otto moved quickly, anticipating him to help. It all happens too fast for Wally to comprehend.

Otto deactivates the captain's chair while Gofer grabs Eve when she heads over to the confused Wally, cuffing her hands with suspension binders.

"LET GO OF ME!"

"EVA!" Wally finally understands Eve_ is_ in present danger! He tries to rush over to help her but Otto rushes over to Wally.

"You! Give me the plant!"

"Aaah!" Wally dashes out of Otto's reach, plant still in his arms, terrified by the tall man's menacing stature. Otto grabs Wally by the collar of his coveralls before he could leap away further.

"I Said 'give me the plant!'" Otto's steely voice far more menacing than anyone ever heard from him, freezing Wally's squirming and locking him in terror. Wally considers complying with his demands as long he can help Eve from this surprising danger.

"WALLY! DON'T GIVE IT TO HIM! NO MATTER WHAT HE DOES!" Eve pleads to him, Gofer trying to silence her by holding her mouth shut with his hands. Wally looks between Eve and Otto, his panic mixed with confusion. Unable to give him what he wants upon Eve 's command but she will remain in danger.

"Do _not_ make me repeat myself!" Otto pulls Wally's thin frame off his feet and up close to him, glaring and howling into Wally's face with deathly seriousness.

"Or I will force you to give it to me!"

Wally shook in total fear with the plant clung to his heart with both arms, he wanted to run away with Eve and not face this terror, but he can't, nor did he want to run if he could. He was at least not in total fear to lose coherent though he did not want to feel like a coward. Eve's needs outweighed Otto's threats.

"Umm…uhuhuhuh…No!—" Otto unexpectedly brings his fist down on Wally's face, shattering his glasses into shards, breaking his nose and cheek.

"Ooow!" Wally shouted in pain, unable to clasp his face burning from the blow of Otto's punch.

"Give me the plant now, for I am authorized at this point to use whatever methods I deem necessary if you don't!" his controlled voice hid the boiling anger inside of Otto.

"N-nnn-no, I won't!" Wally's timid defiance is met with another powerful blow to his face, he almost felt like his head was going to fly of his shoulders. Instead, he flew across the room.

Eve and McCrea felt helpless to see Wally defenselessly get strung up by his messy hair as Otto interrogates him.

"NO! DON'T HURT HIM!"

She begs Otto to stop, but he gives Wally another blow, shouting in pain as Otto breaks his jaw; along with another punch to his stomach, causing Wally to spit out blood and a tooth, still held onto the plant for dear life, he did what he did best, he endured.

Otto loosens his tie, a very terrifying hint of frustration growing within him against Wally's uncooperative resistance.

"Very well then, _don't_ give me the plant."

That uncharacteristic statement sent a chill down everyone's spine.

He draws out his meter long pace cane, activating a hidden button at the grip, suddenly causing the cane to light up, sparking and crackling with electricity.

Otto strikes Wally with it. The moment it touches Wally's skin he spasms and shrieks uncontrollably.

It's the most painful thing he has ever felt, the sensory overload of being hit by a steel wall and the sensation of his insides on fire made his harsh life on Earth seem bliss. The blunt carbon fiber cane contused flesh and fractured bones wherever it struck Wally as well as shocking where it struck with over ten thousand volts, causing his pacemaker to fluctuate, making a stabbing pain in his heart. The pain followed by another torturous strike with more force than the last, then another and another…

"AAAAGH! STOP-AAAGH! MERCY! A-STOOO-Aaaaaa!"

Wally's desperate cries for Otto to stop fell upon deaf ears as he continues brutally torture him right in front of Eve, who has broken down in tears.

After a minute of gruesome beating which felt like an eternity, Otto stops. He didn't break a sweat but the frustration was imminent in his interrogation, not bothering to stop in between strikes with his prod. He brushes back a few loose strains of his black hair and grabs Wally by his neck, lifting him two feet off the ground so they are face to face. Wally could barely breathe already from the unbearable pain of broken bones, bruises and cuts all over him. Otto's grip on his throat felt stronger than carbon steel but at least he never let go of the plant and his pacemaker left intact and functional.

"So, 'Wally'…will you give me the plant, please?" clearing his throat, Otto asks him casually if nothing happened, his usually unreadable face still withheld the cruel persona.

Wally stared Otto in the eyes with his black and blue bruised ones. From Otto's prosthetic right eye to his organic left eye and then over to Eve, her eyes stung red, crying. It hurt Wally to see her the way she is now over the pain of his beaten body, she doesn't want Otto to ever lay a hand on the plant or him, but, there could be only one thing or the other to choose from. Wally could see in Eve's eyes silently begged him to just give in and stop Otto's onslaught. Wally continued to stare into the now strangely but loving eyes of his beloved white haired beauty, remembering how much he loves her. How much she is important to him and how much her needs come before his own, even before his life…

"I'll take your silence as a yes." Otto declares. Wally gathers up what little courage and moving strength he has left in him when Otto reaches for the plant clutched in Wally's prosthetic hand. And shouts all the air he can through his clutched throat.

"Never!"

His arm compartment opens up his cutting laser, and fires a short burst directly into Otto's left organic eye.

"Aaaahhhh!" Otto yelled in pain as he presses his hands to his cauterized organ, dropping Wally to the deck. Though unbelievably surprised by his bold act, Eve struggled to break free from Gofer at this turn of events, but Gofer has the advantage of her bonded. Slowly standing up, Wally places the plant in his utility bag, addressing Gofer with all the will and courage he can summon, turning the demanding tables against the mutineers.

"Let go of Eve! Now!"

Otto however, turns to Wally. He kept one hand pressing up against the smoking remains of his eye, blood trickled down his face, his breathing become contorted and he trembled uncontrollably.

His other eye…though prosthetic and robotically optic which now fit him perfect, it fully diluted, the large red glow expressing the white hot emotion no one has ever lived to see on the face of Commander Otto, a face so terrifying it could have frozen all the Four Horseman of Apocalypse in their tracks.

His eye showed hate, the boiling rage inside him exploded out of him like a supernova.

"YOU INSULANT!"

All pointed at one, defenseless garbage man about to be destroyed.

"AAAAAAAHHH!"

He charges Wally with all the rage and hate in his body, along with his superhuman strength as he brings up his electroshock cane, the end forming a razor sharp stake like spear all locked on and about to bear down on Wally's chest. Wally falls over as he tries to back away…

… the electroshock stick meets Wally's pacemaker, penetrating through its delicate electronic blood pump, stabbing right through his crest bone, impaling muscle tissue, blood vessels, organs, and tearing out the back of his torso and thrusting into the titanium deck floor with body breaking force.

"**NOOOOOOOO!**"

Eve screamed. Wally couldn't hear her, he is in excruciating pain, so much fiery pain it rang through his head, his heart, his skin and insides felt they were ablaze, melting and exploding all at once. The violent involuntary convulsions threatened to tear him up, limb from limb. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and blood trickled from his eye sockets, nose, mouth, and ears. The electrocution sent all the ten thousand volts throughout his veins. Wally's pacemaker literally blows up in his chest, bursting into sparks of incinerated circuitry, searing surrounding flesh along with the glowing plasma arc cane.

Otto propelled it further inside him with his super strength, crushing the grip of the cane. He gritted his teeth harder like they're going to shatter into a powder. The burning fire of Wally's suffering fueled Otto's hate, giving his prosthetic eye a white-hot glow.

The cane runs out of power after around ten seconds. Through the pain, Wally felt like he had touched the edge of Hell.

Otto furiously pulls the cane out of Wally, and out of the deck. Wally remains on the floor, unable to breathe. His blackened chest smoked and sizzled from the fried pacemaker on the inside, dark red blood poured out of the scourged open wound, making a sickening sizzle of the blown pacemaker.

"WWAAAALLYY! NOO! NOOO-ooooooh!" Eve violently struggles against Gofer, against fiery sadness and anger to attack the monster that apparently slaughtered the man she loves.

Otto drags the unmoving Wally to the disposal conduit, leaving a small trail of blood as he roughly kicking his body down the shaft head first, disappearing into the garbage airlock below, soon to be thrown out into space and never seen again.

_Throwing out the garbage, _he thought.

Breathing heavily, Otto regains what's left of his professional composure and calmly turns around to see a terrified McCrea and a distraught Eve.

"Bring her here."

Gofer tries to maintain Eve as she screams her head off at Otto.

"YOU KILLED HIM! YOU MONSTER! YOU—"

"Then maybe you could join him!" Reclaiming the stun gun from her, Otto fired an electroshock directly at Eve, rendering her limp and unconscious and tossed down the shaft by both men.

Otto turns to McCrea, who is too shocked at what happened. Acting if nothing ever did happened, Otto simply straightens his tie and wipes Wally's blood off his cane and hands while Gofer hands Otto a biodegradable pad, placing it over his burnt eye as he finishes his prior statement to the captain.

"I cannot allow you to return this ship to Earth, sir. Security Chief Gofer and I must do all means necessary to ensure that order is followed, to preserve the survival of humanity, so, as of this moment forward…"

Otto snatches the captain's cap off McCrea's head and places it on himself.

"…I herby relieve _you_ of your command. I shall resume the position and responsibilities over this vessel as captain," he leans in closer.

"As I and my predecessors always should have."

"NO! THIS IS MUTINY!" McCrea's shock turns to fury. McCrea attempts to regain his hat, but Otto slaps him aside as if he were weightless.

Chief Gofer and the newly the self-appointed Captain Otto strode for the elevator.

"Be sure to severe all means of communication to this estate chief, we don't want him to stir up a panic amongst our passengers."

"Aye, aye …captain," Gofer salutes Captain Otto, killing the lights and computer to the former captain's room.

Captain Otto faces the struggling McCrea trying to get back up, shouting 'mutiny' at his traitorous officers.

"You are confined to quarters until further notice, Mr. McCrea, don't try anything foolish."

"NO! MUTINY! MUTINYYYY!"

The elevator door closes on a resisting McCrea.

"**MUTINYYYYYYYY!**"


	26. Chapter

Fellow readers,

Whadaya expect? Chapter twenty six? Mmmm . . . nope!

Since I almost have . . . lemme think . . . nine more chapters to go . . . so here it's gonna work: I get more than . . . six plus . . . carry the one . . . fourteen or over more reviews than I'll post more a chapter or two. Other than that, not pretty much motivated if I only have six simple reviews until then, I'm gonna leave Wally and Eve get sucked out of the _Axiom_ and perish in the vacuum of space!

More reviews and you shall get more! And yes, I'm that cynical! MWUAHAHAHAHA!

Sincerely,

Spring-Heel-Jacqueline


	27. Uprise

**DISCLAIMER **

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_.

* * *

A single steward patrolled the primary maintenance corridor, his peaked cap flashing a siren whilst scanning his line of sight for any suspicious characters from the day's civil unrest. The rioting under control and the peace onboard has normalized for the time being. The escapees have spread throughout the ship but were in the process of being apprehended and sent to the brig. Two of the inmates, a rogue female Extraterrestrial Vegetation Reconnaissance & Evaluation scout and an unregistered male, had the highest priority to be found. Only a certain number of stewards were sent out to find them. They may be clones but due to the lack of any sizable rates of crime or disorder onboard the ship, their numbers were kept to a minimum.

The lone authority figure stopped in his tracks, his gaze falling upon an odd trail of wet, thick, sticky and nontoxic bright yellow paint leading towards a storage compartment.

"Wrong."

His imprinted Code of Law and training kicked in, the steward opens the door. Just as he suspected, the bland-artist from the ward, recognizing the red band on his arm, his bizarre paint covered attire and his over coated paintjob on every surface in the room.

Vingo got separated from Hoover not too long ago, being distracted by all the 'colorless' surfaces to paint on. So lost in painting the floor he wound up in here and ran out of places to paint in this tiny room. No surface to cover in paint to fulfill his habit and now no place dark enough in there to hide with bright yellow, Vingo shook in fear at the peace officer, he had been found and who knows what these mean facsimile of men are going to do to him.

"You, fugitive, are under arrest…" the steward binds Vingo in energy cuffs, as he is too scared to emit a sound.

"…for Public Code violation 8160: vandalism of Buy n' Large property. And security code 5150 for escaping psychiatric evaluation confinement."

The steward drags the helpless painter outside, empathetic to Vingo's treatment other than the consequences of his actions.

The lid to the trash chute next to them vibrates, drawing a confused look from both the steward and Vingo. The vibrating worsen, a whining jet noise comes from inside the chute. Suddenly, it explodes into blue hot flames with three figures flying out of it.

The steward was puzzled by why he saw a cleansing officer emerge from the most unlikely place but he recognizes two of the figures, one female Extraterrestrial Vegetation Reconnaissance & Evaluation scout and an unknown filth covered man. The exact suspects he was ordered to find.

"You two! Stay where you are!" Tapping an emergency command into his intercommunicator, he raises the alarm.

"I'm arresting you for attempting civil unrest and breaking out of confined evaluation!" the steward shouts to them as he readies his earpiece to take an alert snapshot. The female scout turns to face him, plasma rifle in one hand and the badly injured dirty man carrying a boot, in her other arm. She has a terrifying glare even to him.

"Uhh, Don't you mov—" he hastily takes the snapshot as the scout flexes in his direction, pointing the rifle point blank at his face as the image is captured.

The steward cowers in the storage room, feeling fear for the first time in his service life as Vingo was released from his bonds.

Vingo looks in awe as Eve locks the hiding steward and then looks over to a familiar friend in her arms. He was gut-punched at seeing the bloodstained Wally looking weak, something terrible must've happened to him.

Eve, Wally, and Moe headed down the corridor before he could thank them but he gives chase anyway. Immediately recognizing the man that freed him from trouble once already, he guesses they must be trying to help him and so will he.

Unable to find words to speak while running so fast because of the scouts speed, he could create certain sounds resembling actions or words almost as same as his artwork. With his multi-color selection paintbrush, he switches colors as fast as the buttons can and each sequence emits a harmonious shifting sound. He mastered this as a form of instrumental music along with his art.

On that note, he found what to say as he trailed Wally and his friends.

Wally hears a familiar sound behind him. Though his hearing and health diminished he could distinguish the voice of Vingo. Groggily, he looks over to see Vingo trailing behind them, trying to match Eve's enhanced speed. Vingo made a familiar sound with his brush. It was an upbeat 'Put On Your Sunday Clothes.'

Weakly raising his brows, Wally gets an idea. He presses the play button to his recorder and cranks the volume as loud as it can go.

_"...Put on your Sunday clothes _

_There's lots of world out there!..."_

Eve looks at Wally for a second, puzzled by the source of the "Hello Dolly"song. All of a sudden, familiar figures with red arm straps gathered behind her and around her. She stops in her tracks, she readies herself to draw her plasma rifle, unsure if they're a threat.

"Wawwy!" A stuffed-up janitor wielding a vacuum cleaner approaches them, surprised to see his friend. The rest of the ward rejects happily recognize their savior and greet him with a welcoming ramble of thank you and hellos. Remembering Wally set them free and developed a friendship with them, she lowers her rifle.

Hoover's expression goes grim at seeing Wally's current pale state, and his bloodied chest.

"He's hurt, badly," Eve hastily states to the reject crowd, they all gasp in shock and worry, murmuring what happened or how _bad_ or mortal it is.

"But I'm going to save him…" she was about to take off when Hoover spoke up.

"Then we will hewp! Wawwy thaved uth all, and we will all thave him!"

The rejects wildly cheer their support. Wally weakly smiles in gratitude, three hundred inmates all loyally bound to Wally's debt after setting them free by accident. Even in a race against time and his failing body, their circumstances couldn't be better.

"All right then, come on!" Eve rushes everyone to get moving, the rejects stampede down the corridor behind them, determination filling the air.

Images of their intimidating _'WANTED: ROGUE FUGITIVES'_ begin popping up everywhere they look, and the cheering inmates trailing them echo through the night-lit corridors of the _Axiom_.

They will no doubt draw unwelcoming security attention to themselves, but Eve is counting on it. Even with three hundred escapees against who knows how many stewards the entire ship's security had to send after her, she has her reasons for charging down the halls at night like the cavalry.

She hoped everyone will see her snapshot, showing Wally is still alive with the plant and she is going to roam the ship until she can blast Otto's treason and _A113_ protocol out of the water and back to Earth.

Most of all, she wanted Otto to see the security image of her aiming her plasma rifle on the camera, as if aiming directly at Otto himself. The intensity in her beautiful eyes is far deadlier than her combat gaze. She looked full of rage and protectiveness akin to a mother protecting her cub; she held her wounded Wally up still possessing the plant, showing Otto what he did to him and to her and they are still going to return to Earth.

Anyone stupid or suicidal enough to cross her path towards Otto will regret it dearly. She could inflict terror as much as awe and seduction into any man's heart and that's exactly what she wants to do.

She wants Otto to feel the petrifying fear while staring at her deadly stance as did to the unfortunate steward who lived only to take the shot. Showing what he's about to face after ever harming her beloved.

She is going after him and going to make him pay.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

On the **BRIDGE**, the _Axiom'_s newest Captain Otto looks at the incoming security footage of rioting crewmembers. His damaged eye treated and covered with a biodegradable patch, sealing his new laser etched eye until he can get a prosthetic for it.

The footage played on a holographic-screen, showing the maintenance sublevels being overran by hundreds of escapees. It's the second time in one day for that to happen on an already unfortunate and unstable changing day for him.

He abruptly became the _Axiom_'s seventh captain after relinquishing Mr. McCrea rather unsteadily. It was for the greater good no doubt for him, but he couldn't help considering all possible factors in the chain of incidents leading up to this point and what it would lead to. After 'Wally' somehow brought out emotions from Otto of all people, through his impervious mask of controlled and calculated mindset and brought out primal rage from within him, leading him to dispose of the pathetic garbage collector, _and_ to take the pleasure from it out of bloodlust without a moment of hesitation.

For the first time, his mind wandered freely, contemplating all possible what ifs and consequences of what transpired when he took the necessary measures for the _A113 _Protocol. There were problems, no one else knew of the secret directive and _no one _but he even should. Letting the ex-captain and Lieutenant Eve know of a code black directive was an act of treason itself let alone mutiny, but if word got out about how he _also_ committed an act of torture on Wally, murdered him, the lieutenant, and Mr. McCrea if needed be to tie all loose ends to cover up his exposure of government secrets? What would the ship's crew and population think of him? What would they do? Otto felt a slight ting of worry for his being and for the stability of events to come. What will life be like from now on?

"_WANTED: ROGUE FUGITIVES._"

A distracting 'wanted' screen materializes, showing a snapshot of two familiar individuals. The ones who caused all that civil unrest not to mention his own troubles, the ones he thought he disposed of and still have the forsaken seedling.

Otto maintains his perpetual frown although his remaining eye turns into a solid red glare, seeing the lieutenant holding on to that garbage man with the plant.

"Impossible."

He thought he killed them for sure. No one could survive being sucked out into space. But…they are still alive and have the plant.

_Are they defying reality for my expense? _Otto's anger threatened to boil up again.

The ship's deck plan showed their exact location, headed from the garbage airlock up the main maintenance corridor and forward to the **MAIN DECK**, obviously they were going to find a way to get this ship back to Earth.

_Over my deceased decomposing corpse, _Otto mentally comments, becoming more and more unlike him, save for one mindset the same. _A113_ must be followed by any measure necessary, regardless of what outside forces tried to intervene.

Turning to another console, he opens a channel to the ship's security center.

**_"Attention all security personnel, this is the _****_captain_****_…"_**he took a moment to emphasize his new title. Unsure if others might think of it as strange if they even care to truly listen who is in charge.

**_"This is security, go ahead captain." _**Yet again, security obeyed the captain, no matter who his or her voice was, they followed orders. Otto continues.

**_"We have a critical situation developing in the main sublevel, an uprising of escaped psychiatric patients from the medical evaluation ward lead by two wanted individuals. One male in yellow and one female Extraterrestrial Vegetation Reconnaissance & Evaluation scout in white. They are suspected to be armed and considered extremely dangerous. Mobilize all steward units as soon as possible to quell this threat. Please be advised you are authorized to use lethal force if necessary, I repeat, authorized to use lethal force at your discretion." _**

**_"Aye, aye, captain, and our entire force is responding to the crisis as we speak." _**

Down below on the main deck, hundreds, maybe thousand stewards paced out every hallway, hatch and corridor from patrols to the armory. All headed below decks to deal with the rebellion.

Otto stands back and awaits any updates as the situation unfolds. For the time being he will command the task at hand and contemplate later about how to progress a new way of life without Mr. McCrea's hindrance, who was busy trying to be heard through the elevator shaft from his estate...

"Otto! OTTO! Let me out right now! YOU HEAR ME? This is your last chance you traitor!"

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

...Ex-captain McCrea pounded away at the elevator doors, ramming it with his hover chair and fists to at least draw attention to him.

"MU-TIN-Y! Mutin-ee! Mut-ineee..." He runs out of stamina and willpower to keep up his protesting. His outcries of mutiny and angry demands to be released went unnoticed and not replied to by Otto as he did for almost an hour. He lets down his hand in a last pitiful smack on the elevator door, it taking no damage at all. McCrea slumped over on the door, panting and exhausted.

"Stupid…helms…man."

"_WANTED: ROGUE FUGITIVES._"

The main computer resounds through the ship, light floods McCrea's room from the giant hologram of Eve's wanted snapshot on the ceiling dome of the main deck. Looking out from the interior window, McCrea squints to focus in on the image of Eve. She and Wally are still alive! He focuses his eyes more on the object in Wally's hand, suddenly overcome with surprise.

"The plant!"

Thinking fast he opens up the Operation: Recolonize manual, a plan brewing in his mind reflected by the smirk of newfound determination. If he can't get to the plant, the plant will come to him and put Otto's _A113 _to a grinding end.

"We'll see who's powerless now!"

Lowering his chair, he slides under his computer console and pries open the access panel. He can't carry out this plan without sending a message.

"Ah-HA!" He rifles through the computer's inner workings and locates the right set of wires. Stripping the right two wires and cross-contacting them...

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

...Numerous holographic screens materialize everywhere, filled with static, a scratchy voice and image trying to work through it.

**_"…T..." _**Static.

**_"…esting, testing… Is this thing on?"_******

McCrea's fiber optic feed struggles for reroute power to enhance the image. Sure enough if the connection holds, he establishes a live broadcast throughout the whole ship.

Passengers and crew stop and stare at the televised message from the ex-captain in confusion at this time of night and his frantic appearance. To Eve, Wally and the mob, they stop in their tracks at a corridor intersection surrounded in holographic-screens. Eve listens intently, relieved her deliberate snapshot made it to him and a plan of action set in motion.

McCrea's stays low and whispers as loud as he can, even though the whole _Axiom_ is watching him.

**_"Psst, this is the captain. I am locked in my room. Eve, Wally, if you are watching this…" _**He holds up the manual's page, showing the visual instructions of a scout bringing the specimen to the holo-detector, which happens to be…

**_"… bring the plant to the LIDO DECK." _**

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

…Broadcasted even to the **BRIDGE**, Otto frowns at the ex-captain's clever attempt to inform the lieutenant and further complicate the crisis at hand, thus the risk of _A113'_s failure in possible reach. A very small possibility, a million to one, maybe even a billion to one...but they still had a chance.

Working quickly, he tries to shut off the broadcast and send reinforcements down upon Lieutenant Eve's location before they get any other ideas…

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

**_"I'll have the holo-detector activated for you. Now hurry! Otto's probably goanna cut me o-" _**The broadcast feed goes dead, Otto shuts it off rather too late for Eve and Wally now know where to go. Eve looks between the screen and Wally in her grasp, nodding in approval and determination. The **LIDO DECK** is just a few hundred meters, not far at all. They can do this.

"HALT!" a monotonous choir of voices echo throughout the corridor. All passerby crew, the rejects, even Eve nearly bolted upon seeing what was ahead of them that unnoticeably formed during the captain's broadcast. The entire hall ahead of them full of hundreds upon hundreds of stewards, a blockade of security clones. All of them armed with riot gear, shields, and electroshock hand weapons set to 'kill.'

The rejects remain frozen in fear, they turn to Eve, looking at her for they're in _big_ trouble and wondering what to do. They were not very courageous against authority figures.

The lead steward forcefully addresses them.

"Citizens, we herby order you to stop what you are doing and surrender at once. If you refuse to comply—" **BOOM! **

His speech cut short by a burst of white hot plasma to his torso from Eve, vaporizing instantaneously. Everyone gasps at Eve's sudden act of blasting away the man, she doesn't have time to negotiate or surrender, her Wally dying in her arms for Forthright's sake.

"I'll _never _surrender to Otto's mindless puppet army! I know you're watching Otto! Do you hear me? I'M NOT GIVING UP!" she shouts to everyone.

"FIRE AT WILL!" The next lead steward raises his weapon to fire, the other stewards following suit. Eve blast him away too, killing as many stewards as she can before they could react.

The hall lights up with bolts of energy as Eve and stewards' fire away, the rejects run around barely dodging every shot. Eve shields Wally with her body as she shoots, but remains careful not to reopen his wound.

Stewards fall down fast to her plasma bombardment. Each shot takes out half a dozen as they're grouped together. Fresh clones take the deceases place, becoming a relentless barrage of reinforcements. Eve finds herself stepping backward, losing ground.

An electroshock bolt grazes by Eve's arm.

"SON OF A...!" she shouts in pain, another shot hits her square in the thigh.

"AAAAAaaaaaaagh!" Eve screams as she tumbles over in pain, dropping her plasma rifle, clutching her bleeding but intact upper leg. Now the stewards move in to take her and Wally.

Hoover notices their main fighter and savior defenseless.

"We have tho help'th them! Attahk!"

He charges at the stewards with a battle cry. The rejects follow head on, forming a human tidal wave towards the steward blockade. Some form a circle around Wally and Eve as they tie up her injuries.

The stewards and rejects collided, each inmate combating trained super guards with whatever blind rage they had. Perdie and Moe poked stewards' eyes and splattered them with substances. Hoover blinded them with dust from his vacuum, Bella used her umbrella as a club and the emergency medical technician uses her defibrillator to electrocute them. The rest pounded the security relentlessly.

The prepared guards outmatched and outnumbered them, nearly effortlessly knocking down their opponents and apprehending them. The stewards forced the fighting mob back, slowly but surely advancing towards Wally and Eve.

Hans approaches Wally, gesturing his energy bound straitjacket to him. His clenched teeth, heavy panting, and the animalistic look on his face meant he was beyond insanity and bloodthirsty and about to let it loose on someone rather quickly. Though his mind was clouded in pain, Wally figured he wanted him to set him free, a good idea, only if he goes insane and bloodthirsty on the stewards, not him.

The guards approached lot faster, the line of rejects given way. Weakly, Wally activates his arm's cutting laser, the red beam hits the energy-binding straitjacket, shorting it and setting Hans free.

"FREEEEEEE!"

Faster, stronger, and far more ill tempered than Eve herself, Hans leaps over the crowd with arms flailing and shouting gibberish primal sounds of an angry beast, finally free of confined movement. Grabbing every blunt and sharp object in reach, he charges the entire steward army, ready to rip them to shreds.

Hans crashes through the line of stewards, ripping them to shreds. The carnage becomes horrific everyone looks away, covering their heads from flying stewards body parts and their dying screams against such a demonic massager.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Meanwhile, Otto's frown becomes disdainful, watching the count of stewards drop as they were suddenly killed off like flies for some unknown reason.

_How? It's just a collective of degenerates against genetically-enhanced clones of stewards!_

"This situation just keeps getting worse and worse!" Otto's frustration is beginning to seep into his mind, though he tries to remain wholly professional as always.

Another holographic screen materializes out of the corner console, a live message from the ex-captain's quarters.

Otto opens the video com feed.

**_"Look what I got!"_** Mr. McCrea laughs holding his hand up to the screen with… the bionic iris of Otto's remaining eye goes wide, shocked and infuriated.

**_"Haha! That's right Otto, look what I got: the plant!"_**

"Not possible!"

**_"Oh, you want it? Then why don't you come and get it, blinky!"_**

"No!" Otto frantically shuts off the link, grabbing his electroshock cane as he heads for the elevator…

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

…McCrea shuts off the video feed and the projected freeze frame image of Wally holding up the plant. He stood in front of it the whole time to fool Otto, making him look like he was holding the plant.

Otto bought it, and was on his way. The second part of the plan was complete, and now time for the third. McCrea pulls all of the wires out of the console wall, killing all the lights to the room. The elevator chimes and McCrea hides himself is prepared.

Time to take out the self-promoted 'captain'...

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

...The elevator doors open, Otto cautiously steps out with the cane in hand and scans the dark room.

"Mr. McCrea?" No answer.

"Mr. McCrea?" he calls out again.

_Could this be a trick?_ he wonders as he scrolls over the captain's portrait, the sixth image distorted somehow and moving.

_If the ex-captain were that clever…Wait a minute!_

The portrait of McCrea, or rather McCrea himself, lungs off his hover chair at Otto. Otto reflexively catches him with his super strength, but the ex-captain weighed an easy three hundred fifty to four hundred pounds on top of him.

"Get off!" Otto struggles to get a head-locking McCrea off him.

"What! Too heavy for ya, huh?"

They both topple into the elevator, closing and moving back up to the **BRIDGE**. As the doors open, they shuffle with each other all over the deck, bumping into command consoles as Otto spins in circles, trying to get McCrea off his back and McCrea head-locking Otto trying to subdue him.

The central elevator opens up, Gofer emerges from it and his attention immediately turning to the fighting, seeing his captain getting attacked by McCrea.

"McCrea! Cease and desist!"

Upon hearing his other treasonous officer, McCrea uses all his weight to kick Gofer back...

He uses a lot of weight, more than actually kicking Gofer off his feet, sending him flying through the interior window and screaming all the way down to the **LIDO DECK** below.

The two hundred fifty meter fall doesn't kill him, the sudden stop does, barely a foot away from landing in the pool.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Hans pants like an exhausted Tasmanian devil, drenched in clone gore standing triumphantly over the remnants of the steward army. Hundreds of their bodies littered the deck. The rejects, Eve and Wally stare at him in uneasy relief. Their main obstacle dealt with…rather bloodily.

A single, surviving steward tries to rise, still ordering everyone to surrender. His order met with a blunt fist through his face, at last finishing the stewards.

Eve shakes the horrific scene out of her mind, finished bandaging up the last of her minor injuries to her bicep and thigh. The rejects cheer wildly and victoriously.

Even Wally cheers with them, the excitement working him up but he cheers too much and starts coughing painfully, clutching over his heart. Eve notices it and reflexively tends to him, gasping when she sees blood in his breath.

"Ev...uh..." his rough voice ridden with weak panic combined with unbearable pain, his internal wound has reopened during the fighting and his deformed heart was beginning to fail.

No time to help suture or grieve, she grabs Wally, the plant and flies down the corridor to the **MAIN DECK**. The rejects struggle to keep up with her accelerating speed.

"Hang on for me, Wally!" She fought to keep back her tears. He's getting closer and closer to that three letter word for when he stops breathing altogether.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

The skirmish was getting closer to Otto's favor. He was far too strong and enduring than the blobby McCrea. McCrea was about to let go when eyes grow wide in excitement. He found the holo-detector activation console, just one button and time to go home!

Shifting his weight, he edges closer to the console.

Otto hangs onto McCrea trying to swing him away before he tries to reach the button.

However, is half a second to slow...

McCrea slams on the button with all his free hand's might.

"GOTCHA, AHA HA!"

Operation Recolonize, the return to planet Earth after seven hundred years of abandonment is about to begin.


	28. Garbage Airlock

So it seems when I updated edited chapters, the chapter that had our heroes in the bottom rung of the ship somehow gotten erased and I do not know how and I frankly don't care. Since I had a _**Creative Writing **_class, as well as being amused by **Tom's** message which seems like I'm back in that aforementioned _**Creative Writing **_class, I went back and reedit _ever single chapter_ to get more grammatical mistakes along criticize it to make the story seem more believable. Example? 'CAUTIOUS: ROGUE HUMANS' to 'WANTED: ROGUE FUGITIVES.'

Like I had stated before, I had a tight school schedule and since I am in college, I became very overwhelmed with it. Especially my drawing class, the teacher wouldn't help me squat with my charcoal drawings . . . And on top of that, I had two surgeries which it took me time to recover from. As a side note, I had been working on other stories as well as looking over stories for authors. So just because I hadn't updated in a while, THAT'S why . . .

In my defense, I have come across many fanfic stories where authors posted on to their stories that aren't real chapters, just notes . . . And the next person who gives me crap about it, I ain't continuing!

As usual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_.

* * *

Eve felt pain all over her, throbbing and stinging disorientation overwhelmed her senses in the dark. The blackness slowly parted to a blur of faint colors flooding in and out of her mind as she drifted in and out of consciousness, so much so that as if her body and mind felt separated. Groaning, she slowly opens her eyes, only to have them shut tightly again as the pain intensified inside her forehead.

_Pain is a good thing, _her instincts told her, the words imprinted into her head by her merciless Extraterrestrial Vegetation Reconnaissance & Evaluation instructors from combat training.

_It means you're still alive, _she lets that thought run through her, forcing herself to open her eyes, harrowingly welcoming the head splitting ache using it to recompose herself and wake up.

Eve's vision clears as she takes in her immediate surroundings to see there's still darkness around her. She can't move. The pain from inside her head combined with some physical objects prevented her from moving to a degree. Whatever it is that held her in place, it smelled most foul.

The stink is all around her. As she moves her eyes and head around as much as she can she sees silhouettes of mountainous piles in all directions in a dark, ugly, deep mess inside a vast metallic chasm with holes looming above. The lit holes kept opening and closing, depositing clutter to these enormous cliffs of junk. Eve slowly recognizes she is in the _Axiom_'s garbage airlock. She must've fell from one of the massive chutes above her, sliding down the trash hill until she was pinned down. Her nano-suit covered with dirt and grime, she was uninjured with the exception of a few minor cuts and grazes, and the ache of what felt like she was electrocuted.

Her mind clearing, she begins to remember images of what happened right before she ended up here. About how she was brought to a garbage chute by Gofer, stunned point blank by Otto, explaining the stinging pains, whilst screaming at him for—

She turns stricken.

"WALLY?"

She calls out to him as everything returns to her, she saw him dumped down here by that soulless first officer, after what he did to him. Eve calls out to him again. Wally must've landed around here somewhere.

"WALLY? WHERE ARE YOU?"

Her voice echoes through the enormous depot, his voice does not echo back to her, no 'Evah!' fills her ears. She fears the worst after what she saw back up on the BRIDGE.

What if he's dead?…The dead calm is shattered by the junkyard's klaxon, startling Eve.

"_CAUTION: ACTIVATING AIRLOCK DISPOSAL…ACTIVATING AIRLOCK DISPOSAL…_"

A platform near where Eve landed springs to life, stacked with enormous cubes the size of houses made entirely of compacted garbage. The platform slides into another cavernous chamber where it sealed off by a transparent blast door. The moment it seals… whoosh! Eve's adrenaline spikes, watching the cubes of space junk sucked out of the chamber as the exterior blast doors open, jettisoning the cubes into the vacuum. That'll be her if she doesn't find a way out and doesn't find Wally.

"WALLY? WALLY?"

Lights shone all around her, the deck rumbles. She turns her head, hoping she had been found and might find a way out. Greeting her were wall-sized, metallic claws shoveling her into a maw; her expression goes fear-ridden as it was a moment ago.

Two, gigantic machines with floodlights begin racking several metric tons of garbage within their hydraulic compacting chambers. They're box shape, automated super compacting units that work the depot, compressing and ejecting trash to be jettisoned.

It's a close call for her not to be squashed to death when the cube is spat out of the mammoth garbage compacting robot. Eve is still in a whirlwind of panic for she's held in place by several tons of trash and her cube is being placed on an already completed platform full of compressed garbage. She's already a goner.

As she dreads over what few seconds she has left, a worn, twitching prosthetic arm and messy haired head sticks out of the cube in the corner of her eye.

"…eeeeeev….." Wally's weakened voice made Eve almost jump out of the cube.

"WALLY!"

She found him, and he's still alive.

"_CAUTION: ACTIVATING AIRLOCK DISPOSAL…ACTIVATING AIRLOCK DISPOSAL…_"

The platform begins to slide into the chamber, by estimates, they have twenty to twenty five seconds before they are sealed off and thrown into space and they won't survive for a single moment since they don't have their Flickinger fields. Her mind races into action, no time to think over what they don't have or can't do. She can't use her plasma rifle, let alone move, but— _antigravity!_

Her boots activate upon neural command, the antigravity field releases the compressed mass holding her in place, bursting free. She turns over to Wally.

"WALLY! I'M GETTING YOU OUT OF HERE!"

He only groans in response, he is alive, yes, but to what extent she does not know and she doesn't have time to hesitate or look him over.

Eighteen seconds left. She digs around him to get him out, but he's buried deep in the cube.

Sixteen seconds left, she digs faster…

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

A screaming voice echoes through one of the garbage chutes in the depot. Moe drops down from the openings landing safely on the garbage piles, only to scream louder from the surrounding mountains of filth. His fear for germs overwhelmed him to the point it doesn't matter and it doesn't by the way, for he regretfully had to ignore his fear in order to jump down here and find that man who put him through this ordeal.

He looks around frantically out of the fear and fury. His Heads-Up Device flashed '_FOREIGN CONTAMINATION_' everywhere he looked, and so much so that one spot looked like moving germs, giving him chills.

Hang on a second, his HUD zooms in on the rather large moving contaminant inside a closing chamber. He immediately recognizes the Extraterrestrial Vegetation Reconnaissance & Evaluation scout trying to pull out…him!

"AHA!" He charges out of the depot, scrubber in hand. His short legs propelling him at the impossible speed of his determination to fulfill his cleaning once and for all!

"YOU'RE MINE NOW!"

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Thirteen seconds left. Eve is clawing through much garbage as she can with her super strength, time's running out. Deep enough to grab Wally she yanks on his limp body to free him but he barely budges, despite his skinny frame he's compressed in there really tight.

Ten seconds left, she dares look behind her to see the gap of the airlock doors narrowing. Her mind races at light speed, unable to make it in time if she even gives any further coherent thought. She tugs on Wally with all her might, straining him as he is slowly pulled out of the cube.

Seven seconds left, she doesn't have enough time left…

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Moe rounds a corner and leaps over the platform rail tracks. He races against the closing doors of the chamber, as fast as his short legs can run. His sterilizing fluid container being a hindrance to carry but he's almost there!

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Five seconds left, Eve uses her antigravity boots, grunting as she tugs Wally with all her strength.

Three seconds, only his legs still left to be unstuck! Almost there!

One second, no time left!

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

_ALMOST THERE! _Moe could already feel his goal cleaned away. Until, while ignoring his surroundings, his fluid container jams in the closing doors.

"What the—"

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Zero seconds.

All happened simultaneously, Eve pries Wally free from the cube as the outer doors fly open, the cubes instantly catapult out of the airlock and replaced with the deafening roar of oxygen sucked out into the vacuum of space. Eve kicks her antigravity boots into full power, fighting the blast of escaping atmosphere while carrying Wally in one arm wrapped around him and the other slowly trying to reach out to the unknown crewmember stuck in the inner doors.

Moe's heart almost stopped, all his thoughts and feelings flood with fear and confusion. Stuck in the door, pressurized air is escaping the gap he created in the sealed doors. The rush of oxygen and debris past his body threatens to loosen him to his doom. His ears almost bleed from the deafening roar and decompression.

Slowly prevailing over the gale-force rush of air, Eve latches onto Moe's outstretched hand, exhaling all the air in her lungs to fight the rapid decompression. Her ears feel they're going to explode, she can't think of what else there is to do but to hold on for dear life and for Wally.

In the depot a very loud alarm sounds over the roar of air, the enormous compacting machines detect the rapidly dropping atmospheric pressure and debris flying towards the unsealed interior doors. Immediately recognizing it threatens to depressurize the depot, and possibly the whole ship will be at risk. The machine closest to the door activates the emergency shut-off, the exterior hatch slams shut, sealing all escaping air, Wally and Eve drop to the deck.

Eve recollects her breath, Moe trembles uncontrollably in the stuck airlock, unable to comprehend the traumatic experience of almost sucked out into space.

"…whoa…" is his first response, in more shock than relief.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

"Here, lay him down here."

Moe obediently helps Eve carefully drag Wally out of the airlock, laying him on the vast flat space in front of the looming machines giving them light. Moe almost completely forgot his cleaning vendetta upon seeing the dirty man injured. Eve could not begin to express how thankful she was of the sterilization officer for conveniently showing up to save them in time because now her mind flared up with extreme worry for Wally, who may or may not even live long enough for her to help him.

Eve gently lowers Wally on his back with her hand behind his neck, propping his head against his own utility bag as a headrest. Moe kneels quietly by Eve's side, both completely loss for words and saddened at seeing this poor man hurt so badly.

Wally's breathing is slow and raspy. Every inhale and exhale labored and painful, rendering him almost unable to speak. His skin turned pale and losing consciousness from blood-loss.

"Wally…look at me..." Eve realigns his broken glasses and gently holds his head, to right it to her, his mind too clouded with disorientation.

His vision barely focuses on her face, one lens of his glasses shattered and the other cracked but he knows she's there and being very gentle with him. The pain of his tortured body and mind overtook the warmth of Eve's presence. He's too traumatized by the sick, deep gouge in the center of his chest. The exposed fragments of bone and torn flesh making contact with the sparking wires of his pacemaker stung like a thousand knives. Wally was in pain so bad he just wanted to scream and cry in agony, but with no strength left in him, he can only whimper weakly against such tearing pain inside him.

Eve's eyes turned moist, the sound and sight of him on the floor half-dead, and in so much pain... she-...she couldn't bear it. She wanted to give him anything to wish away his suffering, to see the curious and joyful face of him she knew.

Tenderly she presses a finger to his lips, silencing his soft crying.

"Shhshhshh…it's okay, it's okay…" Eve softly speaks while she cups his battered face, delicately stroking his cheeks with her thumbs, wiping away the blood and tears of his pain.

"I'm here…I'm right here, for you."

Eve pecks his bruised temple with her lips, letting him know the worst is over, he is safe, she is safe and she is truly there to be with him, to care for him.

Almost taken aback by her affection, Wally trauma fading partially from a warm kiss from Eve and replaced with a little blissfulness. He tries very hard to let her loving touch run through his mind to take it off the pain, and remains to save what little energy he has left.

Eve turns her attention to his bright yellow coverall jumpsuit, which is now scorched black, and the area around the wound soaked in expanding red. She slowly unzips the seared jumpsuit, careful not to touch his chest to cause him any more pain. She opens his coverall her stomach gets queasy seeing the protruding, smoking remains of his pacemaker device.

It actually blown to bits inside the front of Wally's chest area like a firecracker, the surrounding flesh of his bare chest a charred crust of third degree electrical burns. She also notices the concussive marks of fractured ribs along with his numerous spots of melted skin from Otto's torturous electroshock beating. What almost made her throw up is the sight of the most critical wound. A gaping puncture wound the size of a half-dollar coin ran through his destroyed pacemaker, seeping dark, fresh blood through the blown implant's circuitry and pooling _lots_ of it all over him.

She tries collecting herself, remembering she had some medical schooling in the E.V.R.E. program and now is the time to put it to use. First things first, she pulls out her holographic-pad taking a minute to use every x-ray, tomography, gamma ray vision to examine the full damage of his wound.

At the odd angle of the strike, the cane miraculously missed his heart by a mere millimeter, but destroying his vital implant and shocking his heart with ten thousand volts left it barely functioning, and his cardiopulmonary ridden heart began slowing at odd pulse patterns. In addition, his crest bone was shattered, his right lung punctured which impaired his breathing, part of his aorta major artery torn open and losing pints of blood quickly.

They were _all_ fatal injuries. The worry inside Eve turned into distain.

Still lying down motionless, Wally uneasily eyes her from his position, painfully looking down at his blood-red chest and up to her glassy eyes. Eve gazes up from her grim analysis back at him, unable to talk, the look in his eyes asked everything.

_How bad?_

"Wally…"

Her voice is soft but weak, reflecting the sadness behind the luring reassurance in her eyes. But Eve could find no way at the moment to comfort his unimaginable suffering, her heart sinks at the results of examining Wally's fragile and failing body that laid before her.

He succumbed to severe internal bleeding, pneumothorax, dysrrhythmia, and eventual ventricular fibrillation that meant excessive blood loss, inability to breathe, drowning his lungs in his own blood and eventually his deformed heart, without his pacemaker, will fail and then…he will...

She tries to block that unspeakable three-letter word.

"…you're going to be alright."

Eve's sadness still present in her eyes, but now hidden behind her determination. He's going to be alright, as long as she was drawing air to help him.

Getting to work, she pulls out her field med pack, reaching for an anesthetic syringe. Eve carefully injects it into the side of Wally's neck. It should ease the worst of his pain.

Holding her breath to prevent herself from throwing up, she carefully inserts the canister's tiny nozzle into the seeping bloody wound. Wally looks away, wincing from the cold feeling of the metallic foreign object touching the sides of his innards. He closes his eyes uncomfortably when he feels the unfamiliar tingle of the biodegradable foam dispersing inside his torn lung and aorta.

The artery and lung seal shut in seconds, immediately stopping the free flowing internal loss of blood and lack of air.

Taking in a gulp of air, he tries to talk, but it proves a little painful even when drugged.

"Eeeevaa-!" The coughing spat out blood in his lungs, only making the pain worsen. His larynx almost crushed in Otto's chokehold and his broken jaw hurt to make words with.

"Shh, don't talk." She firmly presses a hand to his lips. Part of his shattered crest bone is sealed, allowing Eve to access Wally's external pacemaker without any more bleeding.

"Sterilize his wounds, then you can go ahead and clean him up," she instructed Moe, who sat patiently and silently by her side for the time to help.

Eve pours a bottle of antiseptic to go with his sterilization fluid. Moe eagerly begins to scrub away Wally's blackened chest. Upon contact of the peroxide mix, Wally winches sharply, groaning against the sting of his cleansing burns.

Moe scrubs harder when he reminds himself to get the dirt, he presses the peroxide deeper, making Wally convulse on the verge of passing out even with the painkillers.

"DON'T HURT HIM!" Eve shouts at Moe for applying too much scrubbing, he stops immediately.

"Sorry, just…been waiting to clean him up for a while."

He carefully scrubs Wally again, forcing himself to go slow and steady against his OCD, he looks over his shoulder to see her go searching. Though Wally could now breathe easier and not bleed out, she is far from relieved. She only has a basic first aid kit and she needs more advanced field surgery supplies to treat his wounds but the most crucial of all, he still is not going to make it with a broken pacemaker and who knows how long he'll live.

"Okay, now you stay with Wally, I'll be right back."

Taking one last look at the ruined components of Wally's pacemaker, she flies off into the depot holographic-scanner in hand, searching frantically for something, anything, any piece of clutter or machinery that can function as close to any parts of a pacemaker it could.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

"_ALL CLEAN,_"his head's-up device shows not a single microbe left on him.

Moe finishes sterilizing Wally's body in what time that seemed to flash by for him, satisfyingly cleaning up 'Wally' as he had eagerly awaited forever since he arrived. He's glad Wally didn't complain, for Moe would suffer the wrath of an already distraught Eve.

However, he certainly knew why and not wanting to agonize this poor man any further after what Eve told him what happened. Savagely beaten, tortured, and electrocuted by the commander and then thrown down here, compacted, almost sucked out into space. Now, he was slowly dying on the floor. He disregarded all contempt for 'Wally' over his mysophobia, wanting to offer anything to help him or at least make him feel somewhat comfortable with his company.

Wally let his gaze wonder over to the young man by his side. They have been sitting in awkward silence for some time. Finding he may have strength to introduce himself after the little trek he put this person through and thanking him as much as Eve does. Wally tries to offer his prosthetic right hand out to Moe, no easy feat. Its servos strain as they now rely on feeble reserve batteries without his pacemaker.

"W-" he began with a cough.

"-wwwaaalllyyy," his voice is harsh and coughing with blood and biodegradable foam residue, inhaling between words and syllables. Moe looks at the mechanical hand for a moment and scrubs it out of habit, then shakes.

"Moe," he shakes Wally's hand gently, and they turn their gazes back into staring at nothing, back into awkward silence.

"Moe?" Wally asks, trying to clarify.

"Moe," the teen nodded.

"Oooh…" Wally coughs again.

"…kay...Moe."

Moe offers him a smile.

"Nice to meet you too."

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

After minutes of frantic scanning through the entire depot, Eve returns with a rather sorrowful look. Speed searching through the entire depot, she has only brought back a handful of obsolete in _Axiom_ standard components. Eve kept hoping, finding something at least compatible to work on him.

She gets down next to Wally, presenting him each of the pieces.

"You think any of these will work?"

Wally exams each part, shaking his head with a frail 'no.' He never knew how to work his once impervious pacemaker. None of what she had will work. They were too advanced pieces of nanotechnology based electron chips, nowhere near able to conduct or fit with the ancient, silicon-based circuit board of his pacemaker.

She presents him with the last piece, all hope faded from her eyes when he refuses the last piece. She cursed _Axiom_ technology for growing so rapidly and older tech discarded the moment she needed it most.

Growing more desperate, Eve shakes her head in denial.

"No…no, no, no there's got to be another way!" She knew there wasn't anything else she could do, not after everything that happened mere minutes ago.

They wouldn't get to the medical center in time depending on how fast Wally will bleed out, and even if they get there, they'd still get arrested as they are wanted **WARD** detainees. The current situation with Otto didn't help, sure he'll have her and Wally disposed of for sure if he sees them alive.

Her desperation turns to panic, Wally doesn't have much longer, and the thought of him running out of life has drained all coherent thinking, at a loss for what to do.

Then her panic turns to hopelessness, the fate of Wally's condition sinks in after much denial and determination to save him, but she can't.

_Without treating his injuries and replacing his pacemaker, he had at best, less than a couple of hours and he will…he will…d-die._

"Wally..." her voice broke, mixed with a multitude of degrees of sadness. She doesn't look at Wally, she couldn't look at him, she was too hurt to look into the eyes of whom she was about to lose forever.

Wally painfully looked at Eve, who did her best to hide her eyes from him, still look she's thinking of what to do. She doesn't, he knew what is wrong by just looking at her. He saw the glimmer of gathering tears falling down her cheeks, and that voice, a sound he never heard from her. She was crying.

Wally knew there was nothing left she could do for him.

Wally sat there for a moment, still in pain and a storm of thoughts circling in his mind, all pointing to one thing that was only a matter of time, dreading him and Eve. He was going to die.

Slowly, Wally reaches into his headrest bag. Still distraught, Eve glances over to see he pulled out the plant, weakly holding it up for Eve.

"D…dir-rreck-" he coughs once more.

"…-tive…." he finishes.

She takes it, staring at it deep in thought of how important this insignificant looking thing meant. Not because it was important to her mission but because it was so important to why they are here, the source of everything happened to them to this point.

Why they suffered ordeal after ordeal of narrow escapes and unwanted attention, no...why _he_ suffered. Why it was the source of Wally's misery, with Eve trying to beat information out of him that wasn't there, and Otto trying to murder him over discarding it. Why it meant so much for civilization to return to their long lost home world. How so much significance be fatefully applied to this one ridiculous weed?

Eve looks between Wally and the plant, a great burden fell on her to choose.

She couldn't let her civilization be held unknowingly against their will in such a limbo of a cruise. The key to complete her directive was in her hands. She could free this ship and return to the long lost home world.

Wally, the love of her life, a humble, clumsy and unfortunate but curious, gentle and most kind-hearted human being who ventured halfway across the galaxy, endured through so much to be with her, including her own selfishness, abuse, and blind anger and being tortured almost to death, now slowly and painfully losing his life before her.

There's no way to save him anymore, and all she could do was make him comfortable in his last moments. Yet even after pursuing her to just hold her hand in love, he was giving up his own dying wish for her and her directive.

She felt humbled by his nobility. He _never_ set himself before anyone and never asked for anything in return to insure he would do whatever it took to satisfy her and what was important to her. He was content to sacrifice _everything_ for her needs, for her.

Because he loves her.

"No." She tosses the plant aside, surprising Wally. Even if the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one, Wally deserved better after everything that happened to him, after everything he did for her, and shared with her now more than ever again.

"Directive," she holds her hand up to Wally, and, though still dreaded over the fact that this will be his last moments, she smiles at him, with eyes twinkling of unshed tears.

She tries to speak through her sadness, in the most soothing voice womanly possible.

"You cared for me, now I will care for you."

She spreads her tender fingers for him to hold, to feel her love for the last time and to let him know that he didn't journey millions and millions of miles to die for nothing.

Moe silently looks between the two with a raised eyebrow.

Wally was humbled to see Eve actually set aside what she wanted so much and willing to grant his greatest dream, to hold her hand. Eve understood his surprise, he had no idea she saw him watch over her and confess his heart to her. He knew it may be his last moments to live, and he wanted to give her the plant to satisfy her most important need. She had to save humanity, return this ship to Earth. Something in Eve's eyes and voice made him realize what he means to her now.

She loved him.

She loved him more than going back to Earth.

_Earth..._

A thought crosses his mind. Wally struggles to lift his hand up to Eve's. It's within easy reach of his grasp.

He slightly lowers her hand, Eve almost goes wide eyed.

"No…Evv..vahh…" he coughs, slowly and weakly pulls himself up.

Still clasping his chest to keep pressure on his wound, he reaches out to the plant with his mechanical hand's fingertips, pulling it to him and feebly offers it up to Eve.

"…take…pla...ant…"

"No, Wally, you mustn't—" Eve ceased from protesting when Wally places his hand atop of hers, a pleading look in his eyes.

"…evv..vah…ple...ase…" he coughs.

A tightness in her throat formed when she accepts the plant from him. This may be his final moments and he does not want to accept his deepest wish before her directive for the needs of the many? Was it _this_ important?

"Errrr…." Wally tries to say another word, but it's hard to pronounce the sound the way his damaged lung is.

"Errrr...ph…"

Eve tries to understand what he's saying in the rolling sound of the "R" in the pronunciation. She stares at the plant thinking.

"Errrrph…" That pronunciation reminds her of the soil in the boot.

"Earth?" she asks.

Wally nods much as he can, pointing to his pacemaker.

"Earrrph…." He realigns his glasses with his hand, lifting his brow up and down, squinting his eyelids. Eve watches intently and thinks critically, he's trying to tell her something.

The way he acted like that, like readjusting his eyes like he would when he tried on a new pair.

Her eyes shoot wide open, a realization struck with a memory…

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

**Wally finds his way to his 'room' where he gets to the shelf with his personal items of new glasses, replacement prosthesis, pacemaker batteries, et cetera.**

**"Aha! Problem solved," ****he says triumphantly of having on a new pair.**

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

…A memory of him rifling through his truck for anything his body needed which is back on—

"EARTH!"

Overflowed with hope again, she shouts at the top of her lungs. The realization of what he was trying to tell her with the plant. She _can_ save him! In order to do that, she had to complete her directive. It's unlike anything she thought possible, everything she could ever want or need!

"LETS GO!" With no time to waste she scoops up Wally, using her super strength to carry him in one arm.

"Wait for me!" Moe ecstatically latches on to Eve's back, just as eager to help his new friends.

Eve draws out her plasma rifle, taking aim and blasting the garbage chute seal open, not bothering to wait for it to open. She flies out of the depot with the two in hand. No longer filled with despair and hopelessness but now filled with determination for the return to Earth, if not for humanity, but for Wally. She has to save him. No...

She _is_ going to save the one she loves.

As the three leave the depot, they don't bother to witness the rare sight of the large automated garbage machines waving goodbye to them.


	29. the AXIOM Adventure

**DISCLAIMER **

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_.

* * *

At exactly 12:31:00 AM Greenwich Time, 28th of June, 2805 AD, all 1,550,000 people on board the Buy n' Large Star liner _Axiom_ were awakened by sudden floodlights and klaxons blaring all over the ship.

Pools, holographic ads, shops and the artificial Earth-time environment of night close down everywhere. Trams and hover chairs automatically following highlighted green light paths leading towards the **LIDO DECK**. Passengers and crew had no time to ponder over what was happening, before their hover-chairs sealed them with inflatable _Axiom's Extra-Vehicular Activity_ life preservers. Passengers astray at night and those who slept, sealed in plastic helmet preservers, hovered out of their cabins or hallways. Everyone chattered in worry and confusion, very unfamiliar with this procedure, let alone looking around the surroundings outside their holographic-screen virtual-realities.

Among over the one million passengers and crew, Jon and Mary watched everything happen as their hover-chairs moved on their own. They enter the concourse to the **LIDO DECK**, awestruck seeing the entire human population of the ship gathering on the **LIDO DECK**, forming massive circles over the solidified swimming pool. The deck is massive enough to hold tens of thousands populace in the center around it on balconies.

_What's transpiring must be extremely serious,_ Jon and Mary shared the same thought. Mary eyed a group of terrified toddlers crying.

"Remain calm… remain calm…"the slightly overweight nanny pitifully tried to silence them, completely unaware of the mass confusion around the infants they don't understand. Mary wanted to reach out and cuddle those children to settle her own fear. She didn't understand what's happening either.

The klaxons suddenly stop wailing at the same time another sound took place. It is a whirling up whine of hydraulic actuators powering up for the first time in seven hundred years, coming from the con tower plaza. Everyone turns to the source of its origin, murmuring in awe as the Buy N' Large logo on the floor moved. The blue circle within the logo rose, revealing a cylindrical tube with a biological symbol embedded on a special slot where to place a live specimen.

A captain's whistle resounds the deck, the dome holographic-screen activates for a live broadcast from the captain. Everyone is shocked to not receiving answers to this whole dilemma. More questions arise as everyone watches the captain struggling with the first officer in awe, caught. in the conflict, watching it as a televised fight between wrestlers.

McCrea tries to keep his face in the fiber optic image and trying to be in command, all the while Otto tries to pry him away with punches.

_"**Erg, ladies and gentlemen… this is your- Ugh! Captain speaking! We are having a slight problem—OW! With the helmsman here. Aagh, let go, Otto! Everybody please OW! Remain calm OW!..."**_

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Eve dashes out of the **MAIN DECK** concourse, taking in the image of over a million people gathered here.

Her enhanced vision locks on to the cylindrical device at the center of the plaza. A green hologram-screen materializes over it with a specimen symbol, signaling her to the _Axiom's_ holo-detector.

"YES!"

She holds Wally tightly in her arms, his skin turning ghostly gray and bled from his mouth, he doesn't have much time left but she will save him. Kicking her antigravity boots to full power, they fly towards the holo-detector.

"Almost there!"

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Otto used all his strength to lift a struggling McCrea off him to peer over the interior window console, facing the **LIDO DECK** down below. Over a million of blue uniformed passengers could see him over the active broadcast, cheering for the ex-captain they know to overpower him.

Otto felt hopelessly outnumbered by all these...people.

They had no idea of what truly was happening or what he is trying to accomplish and yet everyone will turn against him. No matter how simple he could explain to them, they will condemn him. Word would soon spread of his intentions to keep everyone aboard this for eternity if need be. Though they weren't suppose to return to Earth, they will turn on him and Forthright knows what they'll do to him. With no possible support after Gofer's death, it was he against the population. It frightened and angered him with unfairness to his core, yet he somehow tried to stay in control of his boiling emotions.

McCrea started to wear Otto down. His weight combined with his headlocks were becoming too much.

"Ugh, what's wrong, Otto? Losing your cool?"

McCrea tried forcing Otto to surrender, noting the changing expression of pitifully suppressed panic on the unreadable officer's face. Stress slowly overtook the futile mental attempts to remain calm and in control, the feelings of being cornered, all chance of help for his cause lost and pushed beyond the limits gripped Otto. He kept reminding himself it's for the protocol but it's becoming less and less relevant against his instincts in the hopelessly declining battle.

A white speck zoomed over the blue crowd below, towards the raised holo-detector. His bionic lens zooms in on the high-speed object.

His mental capacity to remain calm and control vanished, no longer in coherent thought at seeing the impossible sight to the end of his world.

Still alive, Lieutenant Eve and Wally flew towards the holo-detector with the plant, about to end _A113_ and return to Earth.

Otto finally snapped.

"**ENOUGH!**"

Out of desperation, he slams his hands down on the helms controls, flipping McCrea over his head, who lands a few meters away… McCrea slides further away, the deck seems to be tilting...

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

...Wally holds the plant out to the holo-detector's slot as Eve flies him towards it, just a few meters away.

The holo-detector tilted to the side, Wally's hands slam into the side, breaking the bones in his hand and dropping the plant. The plant rolls over the side of the plaza and into the crowd. Eve stops midair confused and shocked. The **LIDO DECK** tilted too.

The entire _ship_ tilted...

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

...Otto slammed on the horizontal stabilizer controls, commanding the ion maneuvering thrusters to list the _Axiom_ twenty degrees starboard. The ship began rolling on its longitudinal axis so fast that the artificial gravity fluctuated, unable to keep up with the turn on its axis.

Otto's sanity still in a downward spiral, reduced to nothing but a panicked control-freak, now knowing he has one very big advantage to regain the control he lost in the battle. Instead, he now has control of the ship.

He presses many commands as he can into the helm's controls, kicking the evasive starboard roll into overdrive...

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

...Mary began slipping out of her hover chair on her right side, the deck tilting dangerously and her seat remained locked in place, allowing her to slip off her chair. She calls out to Jon for help. She sees him slipping out of his chair too, panicked as she was.

All the people fell out of their chairs, screaming and sliding across the LIDO DECK as the _Axiom_ rolled past forty=five degrees to the starboard.

Panicked and confused at this chaotic turn of events, Eve forces herself to set Wally down on the upside of the holo-detector, yelling out to him over the chaos around them.

"Wally! Stay here! No matter what happens, stay right here!"

Wally nods, stays leaning over against the side of the cylindrical device. Eve flies off to find the plant across hundreds of meters of shifting deck. Her mind racing impossibly fast as she desperately searches every spot between and beneath falling passengers.

The _Axiom_ kept tilting by the second, people slid faster until they fell vertically, piling up on the listing side literally hundreds of thousands of people burying one another. Some strong passengers and crew clung to the floor crevices, stopping themselves from falling and holding onto other passengers. The rejects among them have clung onto whatever surface they could on the deck floor.

Mary held Jon from a light post. The toddlers she saw earlier were sliding straight towards Mary, her eyes widen seeing them crying in terror. Sure enough, they won't survive the fall.

"Jon! Get ready to have some kids!"

At the right moment, using her untapped strength, she swings Jon around to catch the free falling toddlers, letting go of their clinging to the post and sliding to the mishmash pit of passengers below. The toddlers stopped crying as they come to safe a halt, cushioned by the fat passengers. Eve floated above them, searching for the plant underneath the heap of humans.

A crashing sound rocks the **LIDO DECK**.

"LOOK OUT!" Mary yells out to Eve in terror, she flips around to feel equaly terrified.

A maglev monorail slides down straight towards them like an avalanche. It derails off the balcony and plowed empty hover chairs out of its way.

She flies straight towards it, slamming her open hands hard on the falling train, using all of her suit's servo-enhanced super strength and antigravity boots. It comes to a grinding stop, just a few meters above the passengers, barely saved from being hit. Eve struggles to hold it up, weighing several metric tons. Her superhuman strength and nano-suit could only do so much. Eve already felt several of her muscles and tendons being strained, her arm and leg graze wounds from the hallway battle earlier stung like a heated blade.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Otto switches the maneuvering thrusters off and the _Axiom_'s starboard tilt comes to a standstill at seventy-five degrees. He stayed magnetically bound to the deck as McCrea flailed around on the listed floor like an upside down turtle trying to get up, cursing Otto's devious turn of the tables.

With the attempted sabotage of his directive terminated, Otto lets out a breath of relief he never knew he held.

Now, he has to seal the safety of _A113_, and ensure all means of returning to Earth are gone. He presses the holographic-detector command, closing it for good...

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

...Wally felt the holo-detector activate, it began sliding down into the balcony floor.

"Oh no." Though weakened, scared, and dying, he uses all his strength to stop it from going down, though it's useless. There is no surface suitable to grip it and it weighed several hundred kilos.

The holo-detector almost half way lowered into the floor. Thinking desperately, he does the only thing he could do. He wedges himself under the upper lip of the holo-detector.

Using his legs, Wally presses his back against the lowering disk of the device. The mass of the holo-detector forces his legs down, squashing him into a crouching position. Wally grunts in fiery pain as his knees and the disk of the device press up against his torso and his wounds.

The holo-detector jerks to keep lowering, its hydraulic gears grinding and struggle against the object wedged in its path...

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

...The holo-detector button flashes. Otto is taken aback by the malfunction warning. Just moments away from shear success of his directive and now something extremely important has to break down on him.

"What! Now!" Otto frustratingly opens a security camera access to the **LIDO DECK** facing the holographic-detector.

A holographic-screen materializes to show an abominable familiar figure jamming his body into the device. Wally, the source and cause of all the chain of events on the _Axiom_, Otto's worst enemy, one he thought he already killed.

"NO! WHY WON'T YOU JUST DIE ALREADY!"

He repeatedly presses the holo-detector button furiously...

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

...Wally fought to keep the holo-detector up with all his fading strength, but was in a losing fight. He felt several bones snapping out of place in his legs and ribs. He bit down hard on his lip to fight the unbearable pain, causing him to bleed. He was so tired, he just wanted all this to end, but he couldn't. He felt it killing him, which it is.

He can't stay like this for long. The effort draining what little life he had left in him, it wouldn't be before he losses consciousness and the disk compressing his form, flatten him into a gory mess.

He never has been more scared in his life, a million times more than the most horrendous experiences in his past on Earth. Scared not only for his life ending just momentarily, he was scared about Eve. She hasn't returned with the plant yet to insert it. Once the device disappears into the deck, it will never be raise again.

Eve will never complete her directive. She, along with Moe, McCrea, Jon, Mary, Victor Hoover, Vingo, Perdie, Bella, and the _Axiom_, all of humanity…all will never set foot on Earth again…trapped in space, forever.

"**_NO!" _**

He will not let that happen at any cost, even his own life. As long he still breath, he had to keep fighting no matter what…_ for humanity…for Eve._

Wally summons his very life-force to hold up the device, feeling his untapped might of three decades worth of garbage-lifting labor rush into his legs and arms pressed up into the holographic-detector. He felt his wounds rip open again, his chest puncture started to bleed profusely through the biodegradable foam. His ankles snapped against the weight of the device trying to crush him, pain flared up in every broken bone supporting the device. The servos in his prosthetic arm short circuit against the stressful load as well. His heart felt it repeatedly stabbed, ceasing pulse and starting again. After an hour or so without his pacemaker, cardiac arrest was about to set in but he ignored it.

He already passed the point of no return even if they somehow saved the ship. He was going to die anyway, and he was going to die trying.

Eve and the passengers stare at the unbelievable sight of the dying man holding up the holographic-detector with his bare hands. The holo-detector slowly inched in the opposite direction! Eve beyond terrified for Wally, he looked so much in pain and so frail he could fall apart any second.

"WALLY!"

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

McCrea gasps at the holographic-screen, still down on the deck floor. He wasn't only watching Wally lift the cylinder. He watched Otto, a terrifying action coming across him. He whipped out his activated electroshock cane, holding it high above his head, ready to strike down a deathblow. Right down on the holo-detector button.

"NO! DON'T!" Too late.

The cane came down into the console with all of Otto's might, the button exploding into a shower of sparks, forcing the holographic-detector into emergency overdrive...

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

...Wally felt the holo-detector's emergency sudden retraction activate. He immediately cried out in agony as the bones in his arms and legs simply snap like toothpicks against the quadrupling load. He now held the device against his back, his skeleton compressed. His internal organs collapsed and blood freely flowed out of him from every wound, orifice, and heart now in the process of ceasing to function.

His leg about to slip into the crevice of the holo-detector's deck compartment as Wally's vision blurred and tunneled his hearing turned to silence and time seemed to slow down. He felt unbearably cold and tired he wanted to surrender badly to sleep he will never wake up from now. Let his body fall apart, banishing all of his pain and slip away into peace he long deserved. He moaned as his body failed all over, somehow his pain lessening, and images of his hellish past flashed before him.

This is it, in just a few seconds. All he has survived and suffered through will end for him. He will lose consciousness and instantly crushed to death, joining the spirits of his long lost and forgotten bloodline family. His scarred and tired being released through death's sweet momentarily release.

"WAAALLLLY!..."

He heard Eve cry his name out to him, her voice the only sound raised above the silence overtaking his senses, choking with sadness and pain. He can almost see Eve in the distance from his squashed position. She struggled to hold up a derailed tram.

She cried out to him again, begging him to let go, not wanting him to die. She wanted him to let go, step away and let the device fall to be sure he was okay and in her arms. On the other hand, they couldn't, Wally can't let Otto keep the human race from Earth against its will and Eve can't let the helpless passengers perish or she would suffer the same fate.

She began to tear up, feeling powerless to save him. He wanted to tell her not to worry, that he won't suffer anymore however he knew she will never be happy again. She wanted him to live, to love him. He was the whole world to her and so was she to him, he will never see Eve again, he will never hold her hand or kiss her, letting her know he loves her with every particle of his being.

It tore him to his soul, except there was no other way. He had to keep his body wedged in order for the plant to fit, he knows she will find it and succeed, she had to. He had to die trying to do what was more important for Eve, for all of humanity.

The last of his very short memories flashed before his eyes compared to the three decades of his incomplete lifetime, save for the very happiest memories of all: first setting eyes on Eve, his beloved white haired angel of a woman. Seeing her up close, taking care of her on Earth and following her throughout the _Axiom_ to holding her close in space, kissing her, her comforting him . . . now, he about to die in front of her.

Wally's eyesight and coherent thinking narrows to a pinprick, his eyelids felt heavy as the holo-detector itself. He couldn't stand to stay awake anymore as he is slowly slipping away, towards the threshold between life and death. It takes all his willpower to cherish one last look at Eve, losing himself as his darkened vision lit up from the radiant white aurora of her clear blue orbs in tears, glowing with all the beauty and love of her soul.

The eyes of an angel, Eve, _his_ angel.

It was his glimpse of all of Heaven about to welcome him.

"...ev...uh..."

Though his lungs were collapsed and could no longer breathe, he spends the last of his life-force to mouth his final words to her.

"I.."

He will never hold her or kiss her again, save for tell her something he always wanted to say to her in person, something that will remain true of him to her forever.

"...L..lo...ve...yo—"

With no adequate blood left, the last of Wally's life force spent and he closes his eyes. His leg slipped into the crevice.

Everyone on the **LIDO DECK** gasps and looks away. Eve screams in horror as she could only watch.

Wally disappears under the disk of the holo-detector, all of its held back weight crashes down on him with a sick bone crunching/flesh splitting sound of his body crushed like an insect. It didn't hurt him one bit, he feels all of his pain vanish instantly, in a sweet moment of peace before his world faded to oblivion.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

A murderous smirk crosses Otto's visage finally satisfied his pest of a foe dealt with. It wasn't presently satisfying, it felt…exhilarating.

"Good riddance," Otto says under his breath, though heard by McCrea.

McCrea could only watch, seeing that innocent, poor garbage man die in the hands of the madman at the helm.

_No. No. Enough! I can't stand by so uselessly! I have to act! _Enough was enough from the homicidal maniac that once was Otto, time to put him and his treachery to an end.

McCrea braces his flabby arms against the deck, lifting up his torso. Sending impulses to limbs he long forgotten how to use, he manages slip one leg under his belly, feeling the cold deck against his bare foot. Then the next foot and presses his hands away from the deck floor...

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

...Everyone onboard diverted his or her attention to the still active visual broadcast from the **BRIDGE**. Not believing at first of what the ex-captain accomplished.

He is the first hover chair bound human in hundred years to stand up on his own two feet!

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

He shifts the weight in his left leg, lifting his foot off the deck and a few inches forward, then the same way with his right leg. Now he was the first to stand _and_ walk!

He gripped the control console railing, baby steps towards Otto with all the strength he could grip up the slope of the deck.

The sound of everyone onboard collectively cheering in encouragement resounds through the ship, giving all the determination he needs to take down the homicidal maniac in control of _his _ship.

"Otto!"

Otto whips around, baffled by the impossible sight of the overweight ex-captain, standing on his own lower two extremities.

"I _order _you to stop this madness, right here, right now!" McCrea straightens his posture, to affirm his superiority and rightful command. Otto however remains steadfast, albeit more smug and in control.

"You are not in command, I am-"

"YOU ARE IN NO POSITION TO BE WEARING THAT HAT! YOU ARE A SECTION EIGHT! RELIEVE THE HOLO-DETECTOR AND SURRENDER YOURSELF! NOW!" McCrea countered.

"I'm afraid I cannot do that, so you'll have to force me to, _captain_," Otto taps the gold peaked cap on top of his head, McCrea's captain hat.

Surprised he let his own confidence take over his actions, the anguish turning into evil overzealousness after disposing Wally. He felt too into the rush of taking extreme measures and wanting to see his opponents in great displeasure.

"Then you leave me no choice, I'll have to take it from you."

Otto didn't flinch at the ex-captain's challenge, chuckling instead if he heard the most preposterous thing ever. McCrea could stand now but he's still an incredibly weak blob of flesh.

"Well then…" he spins the cane between his fingers in a display of martial art precision showmanship, lighting up in electricity.

"…if you think you can take me, then come and get it, Benjamin," he taunted McCrea with the same threatening look he used on Wally. Except McCrea could take him, it's his command he must reclaim.

Otto charges him, bringing his cane to bare down on McCrea though he catches Otto's wrist, stopping his deathblow. McCrea grabs the cane handle with both hands to make sure Otto doesn't break free from his grip and stab him. They fought for the cane, Otto tried to swing McCrea around but he countered with trying to kick him off, like Gofer.

He looks over to see the shattered window where Gofer was kicked out. Somehow, it reminded him about something of those windows. A crazy idea formed in McCrea's head, a friggin' crazy one.

He shifts his body until they faced the exterior windows. In a simultaneous motion, McCrea lets go of one of his hands, grabbing the captain's hat off Otto's head, then he kicked Otto backwards with all his might. They each flew across the Bridge from McCrea's powerful kick.

McCrea landed on top of the consoles, Otto lands hard on the windowpane.

Otto tries to straighten up except he hears... a very faint sound spreading under Otto's weight on the viewport. Using his bionic eye, he looks over, careful not to move should it be-

He freezes, the window cracks. He freezes where he stood, careful not to move or...

McCrea braces himself against a console, interlocking his arms around the railing tightly as he can. Also holding in his hand besides his reclaimed hat, is Otto's electroshock pace cane.

McCrea speaks in the most powerful tone he could muster against the mutineer.

"Get off my ship."

He tosses the cane towards the window, exhaling. For the first time in Otto's existence, he felt fear. True, well-deserved fear.

**"NOOOOO-"**

The window shatters on impact, Otto didn't have time or air left to scream as he is sucked out into the vacuum of space, his body disappearing into the blackness as a speck indistinguishable from the trillions and trillions of stars.

* * *

**PS: **Who ever mentioned that I had "Jeanette" instead of "Eve," you must have clicked on my WALL_**·**_E parody called SIM_**·**_N


	30. All On Deck!

Ya know, I'm surprised my threa-*ahem* . . . _warning _in Chapter 27 took full effect. I truthfully thought it wouldn't work.

Anyways, since I have free time on my hands, I decided to upload a chapter . . . meaning five more chapters to go! Woohoo!

**DISCLAIMER**

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_.

* * *

The emergency blast shields instantly close over the shattered window, resealing the detected breach of the hull and preventing the gale force decompressing air from sucking McCrea out of the **BRIDGE**. He drops to the deck floor, slowly peaking out one eye to see if he was still alive and Otto long gone.

His plan worked. Instead of breathing a sigh of relief, he stands up triumphantly.

Placing the peaked cap back on top of the rightful owner, the captain returns to the helms station and the fiber optic broadcast. Uproar of cheers echoed throughout the halls of the _Axiom_, seeing their Captain McCrea emerging victorious.

As he reactivates the ships stabilization controls, the _Axiom_ levels out, artificial gravity returning to normal. People on the **LIDO DECK** spilled out from the starboard side, some hung from the higher spots they clung on to, unharmed.

The battle all over and he won.

Wally didn't. For everyone on the ship celebrated, only one person cried her eyes out for Wally...

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

...Finally free from suspending the monorail, a grief-stricken Eve immediately rockets over to the holo-detector.

She tries extremely hard to lift the device up, it didn't budge hence it weighed several hundred kilos. She lifted it with all her might, still in tears and her gut-wrenching despair growing.

**_"Eve!" _**The captain's voice temporarily draws her attention to the **BRIDGE** broadcast on the dome holographic-screen.

**_"You need to get the plant! Then you can get him out of there!"_**

Eve turns to the recovering crowd, shouting at the top of her tear-choked lungs.

"PLANT! SOMEONE FIND THE PLANT!"

There were only a few confused and traumatized looks in return. A small male voice breaks through the dumbfounded crowd.

"I'll look for it!" Moe tries to dig himself out of the mass of passengers. Not stopping to straighten his composure, he starts scanning the deck for any signs of the boot. The rejects fan out to overlook the complete starboard side where it must've fallen.

Though still shaken, the passengers try to scramble to their hover-chairs. Some even tried to stand on their own two feet, encouraged by the captain's courageous standoff.

After a few minutes of searching, Moe's pace slowed, he probably overshot it by now.

"_FOREIGN CONTAMINANT._"

"Huh?" His heads-up device locks onto an unsterilized biodegradable organic object lying a few meters away, no genius needed to figure out what it was.

"AHA!"

Picking it up, he holds it over his head like a trophy.

"EVE! I FOUND IT!"

She couldn't keep the holo-detector from squashing her beloved further. Her anger grew when Moe shouts out he found it.

"THAT'S GREAT! NOW BRING IT HERE QUICK!"

Before the short cleaning officer could sprint fast as his legs will allow, Hoover swoops up the plant with his vacuum cleaner.

"Hea! Cath!" he launches the plant in the direction of the holo-detector. Before it falls to the ground, a passenger catches it, passes it to the next and the next. Passengers, crew and rejects form a human chain fire-line to get the plant over to the BRIDGE plaza.

Until Bella gets it, there is no way up the balcony to hand it to Eve. Instead, Bella launches it with her umbrella, sending it flying towards Eve.

She catches it and shoves it into the buried slot of the holo-detector.

The ship's computer instantaneously analyzes the plant and its place of origin. Calculating and tracking with great speed as programmed for seven hundred years ago.

"_IDENTIFIED: Ailanthus Altissimo..._"

The holo-detector slowly raises out of the deck, the mainframe computer voicing the finding.

"…_PLANT AUTHENTICY AND ORIGIN VERIFIED. NORTH AMERICAN SECTOR 001, PLANET EARTH OF THE SOL SYSTEM. DIRECTIVE A1-03 – DELIEVER SPECIMEN TO __AXIOM HOLOGRAPHIC-DETECTOR - COMPLETE. OPERATION CLEAN-UP ACCOMPLISHED. INITIATING OPERATION RECOLONIZE…_"

It was done. Her directive finally complete and officially finished although she didn't give a single care now.

She watched the holo-detector slowly rise from the deck. A figure of a human body emerges from the crevice of the device the surfaces around it coated in thick red. Her eyes were overflowing as she clutched her heart, distraught, hoping for the best and assuming the worst about what has happened to Wally upon seeing his own blood everywhere.

The lip of the device fully emerges from the ground and so does Wally, his body slumping to the deck floor in a sick gurgle, twitching lifeless, the pool of blood quickly expanding and growing darker under him.

Eve gasps in horror seeing his body. No living being could've survived what happened to Wally...

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

"_ALL SYSTEMS READY FOR COURSE SET TO EARTH._"

The **LIDO DECK** dome formed into a gigantic hologram of a celestial map displaying the Milky Way galaxy and the red dot of the _Axiom_'s current position outside the galactic rim. The ship's AI began navigational and mass-balance calculations as the map continually zoomed in from the galactic scale to the Orion arm, to the Oort cloud and finally locking on to the destination, the third planet orbiting Sol.

"_TEN SECONDS TO HYPERSPACE JUMP." _

The countdown timer appears on the dome above, next to the locked on target planet of Earth, twenty five thousand light-years away.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

"…_NINE…_"

...Eve nearly vomited, her mind vainly tried to deny the unthinkable, horrifying sight in front of her, of whatever left of Wally...

"…_EIGHT…_"

Wally's limbs bent in several unnatural directions, compound fractures of broken bones protruded through his skin and coveralls, soaking his suit in dark, thick, blood red. His prosthetic arm crushed to scrap it simply fell off its joint attachment and shattered into pieces of loose details. His skeleton compressed to a pummeled and squished pulp. Eve losses it when she turns him over to look at him, he looked like a poor victim in a horror movie. She involuntary spewed whatever sparse contents in her stomach on the deck when she sees what happened to Wally's face...

"…_SEVEN…_"

...His entire left side cranium horrifyingly disfigured and concaved, bone and gray matter fractured through his crushed skull and endlessly poured fluid. His glasses shattered on his face, causing so many gashes and lacerations his face rendered unidentifiable. His eyes were closed blissfully, if he didn't suffer in his final moments, happy his weary being now peacefully at rest.

"…_SIX…_"

Though useless already, she convinces herself to gingerly place a finger to his neck, checking for a pulse to see if even a drop of life left in him...

"…_FIVE…_"

"No…" her voice choked up and her eyes reddened. There were no vital signs, his body only twitched lifelessly out of spinal reflex.

_"...FOUR…_"

"Wally!" her voice crackled with a sob forming.

"Don't leave me!" she pleaded to him, only the quick return to Earth, to his spare pacemaker, along with the most advanced medicine and whatever deity harbored his life force _and_ listening to her, could save his life from fading out of him. She could only wait for the next few seconds to the next few minutes, to her it felt like waiting for an eternity.

"…_THREE…_"

She cradled Wally's broken body in her arms tight and tenderly as she can while she let out her despair, her white nano-suit stained dark red of his blood. Tears flowed freely from her eyes like a waterfall, her tear-droplets landed on his deformed face, tears of unimaginable pain, worry and love...

"…_TWO…_"

...The _Axiom's_ recolonization preprogramming took over all its functions. The massive ship's ion engines fire yaw the vessel into the right direction for the jump. People onboard felt the relative motion of the ship changing its course. Everyone remained standing in silence, lowering their eyes in respect and grief for the poor man, feeling the same sadness his apparent lover felt.

"Oh no, Wally . . ." Mary started to sob on Jon's shoulder when she sees Wally...

"…_ONE…_"

Deep within the _Axiom's_ engineering decks, a long forgotten, bulky and technologically complex machine slowly spin to life beneath the fusion reactor of the great starship, the Faster-Than-Light drive. Outside the ship, traces of Hawking radiation formed a bubble of negative energy in the space surrounding the _Axiom,_ The Planck particle acceleration of the drive's core wind up with the countdown, about to light off as the final note struck…

"…_ZERO._"

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

The _Axiom_ disappears in a blinding gleam of colors, the surrounding starlight warped around it in a glowing tunnel of blue-ultraviolet shift as the fabric of space and time ripped open, the most pleasing sight for an astrophysicist.

The great star liner jumped into hyperspace, an extra dimensional domain where special relativity doesn't apply. Instead of reaching a destination via a starship's relative forward motion, the destination brought to the ship via a quantum tunnel that exists beneath normal space. A wormhole that folds the distance between point A and point B, a short cut through reality allowing instantaneous transportation across the astronomical distances of the universe.

Passengers and crew prayed for dear life for the ship to hold together as it rocked violently through the unstable slipstream jump between spaces.

Amidst the rush, Eve held onto Wally, crying out to him to hold on to whatever of his soul left in him. In the back of her grief stricken and desperate mind, she prayed for the space between her and Earth to bring the ship faster, not minding the danger of instantaneous interstellar travel.

_Hopefully instantaneous enough to bring him back..._


	31. Down To Earth

If I did owned either the 2008 computer-animated science fiction film WALL∙E produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_ or the story written by **_whoadrep08_**, than I wouldn't be doing the **DISCLAIMER** for _each and every chapter_ now would I?

* * *

Infinite blackness speckled with trillions of stars.

The dead silence and calm twinkle of distant stars suddenly shattered by a blinding flash of colors and blue shift appearing out of nowhere, the starlight warping around the gravitational glitch of a wormhole.

A single Buy n' Large star liner emerges from the opening in space and time.

The Buy n' Large star liner _Axiom_ zooms through space, sudden acceleration from the inertia of hyperspace to a fraction of light speed in relative motion caused everyone onboard fly off their feet to the back of the ship from g-forces.

The ship rockets through space, slowing down as it approaches its destination: a brownish-blue planet with a phlegm-colored atmosphere and oceans in the company of a single orbiting moon.

Third planet from Sol.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Meanwhile, Hal obediently sat where his master once told him almost eleven days ago in Sector _NA-001_, at the end of the Brooklyn Bridge.

His spot littered with Twinkie wrappings and spilled cans of beans. Out of food to scavenge for in the truck and nothing to look for in the city to eat except for a bunch of lush, green objects that recently started spurting out the ground across the metropolis.

Hal whines in boredom, eleven days may not be a long time for humans but for a mutt or for any canine of that matter, all measurements of time were irrelevant. A dog thinks everything takes and lasts forever. Worry seeping into Hal, believing his master may never return—

Hal shoots his head straight up, wildly waging his tail. A red dot of light materializes in front of him and zooms down the bridge to the dried up river bed below.

Suddenly strange things for Hal started to happen. Thunderous sonic boom and the roaring of distant rocket engines echoed throughout the entire sector, causing the ground to shake. The daylight starts to darken, Hal looks up to the sky to see a titanic shadow casted over the land as an enormous shadow eclipses the sun through the polluted clouds, like the sky was falling.

More red dots appear before Hal, he eagerly gives chase to them as he runs to the vast concave in the Hudson Bay zone, anticipating the return of his master if he is in that thing falling from the sky.

The _Axiom's_ keel plows through the clouds high above the landscape, rocket motors fire up from bow to stern, decelerating the city-sized starship from atmospheric reentry to a graceful descend. The red dots slowly triangulate over their target, the deep man-made chasm in the center of the Hudson Bay, the _Axiom's_ landing pad.

Maneuvering thrusters burst in several directions, carefully aligning the ship with the docking clamps. This is it, everything must be perfect, no mistakes. Any change of speed or if the straight alignment with the landing point crooked, the ship will crash down in a fiery and ungodly destructive display of explosions and death akin to an asteroid impact.

The keel spires descend into the landing dock, a few thousand meters to descend and decelerate after a few breathtaking moments and just a bit slower…

The rush of wind caused by wake of the seer-majestic size of the behemoth blasts the region with hurricane force gusts of air, plowing clouds beyond the horizon and blasting walls of sand in all directions, toppling skyscrapers and trash towers in the distance.

After a few minutes, all is dead silent once again. The dust settles to reveal the clouds dissipated from the wake, shining clear unpolluted sunlight over New York City.

The docking clamps have gripped the shape of the _Axiom's_ hull perfectly, bringing the vessel to a complete stop. Touchdown!

The desolate New York City dwarfed by the presence of the massive starship, ten times taller than any skyscraper and casting a shadow for miles. Now it rests in the Hudson Bay as it first left Earth seven hundred years ago.

At the base of the ship, hundreds of pressurized docking hatches unseal themselves to the atmosphere outside, ramps extending to the gateways of the boarding terminal. The hatches open up to the thousands and thousands of waiting passengers and crew of the _Axiom_.

Everyone stands in place, trying to adjust his or her eyes to the harsh sunlight of the deserted landscape. Then they stand there in bewilderment, taking in the foreign image of their home world they didn't know they left so long ago.

The captain takes the first step off the ship, followed by Jon and Mary. The gravity is a bit strong on the populace, having become overweight and calcium deprived in the zero gravity environment of space, but one by one the humans take slow steps out to the terminal, awestruck by the new sight of being planet side. The captain awes in amazement as he looks around, the sight of Earth on the surface wonderful, but what is more wonderful is humanity has finally come home.

"MOVE! OUT OF MY WAY!" Eve screams over the chattering crowd in the _Axiom's_ corridors. She zooms to the **MEDICAL WARD**, taking an advanced field surgical kit without permission with good reason.

She tightly cradled Wally's body in her arms, careful not to drop him or crush any of his broken organs or bones in her grasp. She hadn't stopped crying ever since hyperspace.

She hastily brushes through the crowded exit, hovering over the terminal scanning urgently for Wally's home.

She hears a canine barking up at her, she instantly recognizes it as Hal. He started whining, saddened at seeing his deceased master the way he is. Eve notices too when she sees Wally's body started to reek a terrible stench, his skin turning gray and stopped bleeding altogether. He's been clinically dead about four minutes since the hyper jump and already lost all his blood. Not good, all the remaining life had finally bleed out of him and in a few more minutes, if she doesn't replenish his cardiovascular system and get his heart working again, his brain cells will dissolve without flow of oxygen, all that'll be left is his corpse about to rot.

"Wally! Please! Stay with me!" She searches the land desperately, in seven to ten more minutes he will be lost from her forever.

Through her moist eyes, her heads-up device locks onto the shape of a utility truck on the Brooklyn bridge approximately three kilometers away, to her mind, it felt three more light-years away.

She rockets after the truck, going supersonic as her antigravity boots kick to full power. Desperation fueled her drive to save him no matter what. She hears pleas from Moe and the rejects to slow down and wait for them, but she doesn't care for anything except for the love of her life dead or dying in her arms.

"Eve!" Moe called after her, following the trail of dust in the Extraterrestrial Vegetation Reconnaissance & Evaluation scout's wake. Hans, Vingo, Hoover, Perdie, Bella, and the emergency medical technician on Moe's tail, the six in hot pursuit of Eve.

The universe around her not relevant to her anymore, not her old recolonization directive, not the captain nor the ship, not the Earth, only Wally, the being who loved her more than life mattered to her now. She will not let him fall into the abyss without telling him she loves him back, that he will not die so early without ever feeling the good things he never had while he was alive. How it felt to be held, to be kissed, to have a dream come true, to be loved a whole life long. She will see him open his eyes to her again and tell him she loves him.

She _will_ save him for it is now her directive.

Captain McCrea notices Eve's sudden departure, removes his peaked cap in respect as does all the passengers and crew. Some started praying for Wally's survival, the poor gentleman that gave everything for them to be where they are now.

It's up to the lieutenant to save him now. McCrea offers a soft prayer for her and the man she loves more than life itself.

"Good luck."


	32. Poisson d'avril

To all of my wonderful readers,

I'm sorry it's come to this, but I just simply lost interest for this story. It's the end of it and by "it," I mean I am no longer going to continue update this fanfic story. WALLY: The Humanized Novelization! edited has come to an official end.

Reason for the sudden end is a shocker: I just lost interest for this story and college is stressing me out as well as many other things that are running through my head. It's too much for me. I can't do this anymore. With all this into account, I've come to the conclusion that I have to stop writing this story. It's _just too much work_ for me. I'm really, really sorry!

I know how a lot of you were looking forward to see how this was going to end, which I was actually close to but I just can't do this. I hope that you will all understand. If not, I understand.

Before I leave this story and _never return to it_, I would just like to thank those who has left positive and unenthusiastic reviews and have stayed with this story all the way to this point! I would also like to thank you for adding me and/or my story to your favorites, which really makes me be in high spirits. Thank you for continuingly reading and making this story what it is today!

YOU ARE ALL AWESOME!

Therefore, I leave you all with this final chapter. I am not leaving , just this story. I, again, apologize, for the sudden stop in updates. You have all been a constant source of motivation and a reminder of why I write; I do it all for you guys!

I say a "good luck" to you all.

Thank you for reading and hopefully we'll meet again in the near future,

Spring-Heel-Jacquelin signing off.

**PS:** The threat back from chapter twenty-seven still applies . . .


	33. Է ավարտել

Ya know, if you people looked at the date when I posted the last chapter, it read **4**-**01**-11 = **_APRIL FOOL'S DAY_**! At least two people gave it out in the reviews. One reviewer had "Lipra Loof" which is April Fool backwards (for some strange reason, it took me five minutes to figure THAT out) and the reviewer above it mentions "April Fish," which the French called April 1st. And if you looked at the title of this chapter, you'll noticed that it's French that is translated to "April Fish." I done this is because, according to a source and World History teacher, **All Fool's Day** originated from France.

Besides the two aforementioned reviewers, SEVEN of you ninc-I-I mean . . . adoring readers fell for it, ESPECIALLY the original author of this story XD! The only problem is I'm still trying to figure out if _**Yunivor**_ fell for it or not, her/his review isn't all that clear . . . though I do wanna know how that symbol that looks like a side glance (¬¬) was done :D

Since I finished my last final yesterday, I went over and reedited chapters, like I mentioned I do quite often back in Chapter 27. While editing, I haven't come across any "Jeanette" and came up with four conclusions:  
1) You keep mistaking my other story SIM·N which is basically a rewrite of this  
2) Because of my vision impairment, I didn't see it  
3) I already did the FIND/REPLACE option long ago  
4) I didn't pay too much attention for I was also editing my SIM·N documents alongside this story. Hmm, I wouldn't mind if you people checked there as well

I also intend to go back and add a few things that **whoadrep08** left out that was part of the movie such as in Chapter 28, Perdie not deflecting the rays with a mirror like her robot counterpart in the movie.

Anywho, I should be through with posting the epilogues soon . . .

**DISCLAIMER **

The story idea rightfully belongs to _**whoadrep08**_

WALL∙E is a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by _**Pixar Animation Studios**_ and directed by _**Andrew Stanton**_.

The solitude of Wally's open Buy n' Large utility truck is shattered by a sudden blast of wind, a figurine lands on her feet after flying here at supersonic speed, cradling the body of the truck's occupant.

Eve rushes inside the truck, her every thought and movement going at flank speed. Hal rushes in behind her, whining to see his master wake up again.

She lays Wally's lifeless body on the metal floor and begun rotating the shelves to find his prosthetic spares, struggling to remember precisely where he kept his glasses the last time she was here. She searches frantically, already suppressing her tears for the time being. She has no time to cry she had to act fast.

The shelf full of obsolete medical supplies and crude prosthetic components comes into rotation. Eve stops the shelves cycling and scoops up a pump-like device, Wally's spare pacemaker.

She drops to her knees by his side and unfolds the field surgical kit she brought.

The backpack-sized kit suddenly activates into an auto surgeon, a compact, sterilized, multiple armed biotech machine containing injection canisters, biodegradable scanning, cell membrane generators and operating tools of the most advanced regenerative medicine of the twenty ninth century.

Eve rips open Wally's tattered, bloodied coveralls and gets to work, having no time to ponder over what else she has or doesn't have in the kit or how much of her medical training limited on operating this thing. She had to bring Wally back in the next couple of minutes before his mind rots away. Every second counts.

She starts with the most critical damage to Wally, his crushed skeleton.

The mechanical operating arms form into clamps, and each clung into every broken movable joint and extremity. The piercing clamps inject liquid Periosteum into the marrow and cartilage of his broken bones while pulling the bones into full length at the same time.

Eve tries to ignore the crunching sound of Wally's bones snapping back into place, it seemed surreal to watch a human body unfold into its proper shape like a crunched up piece of tin foil.

His arms and legs straighten out to normal. The injected fluids instantly solidify his fractures into new bone mass, making his fractures disappear. His crushed ribcage, vertebrae, and skull decompressed by suction clamps injected with the skeleton-patching liquids reshaping them from concaved to proper form and smaller fractions are dealt with by lightning speed injections of the hematopoietic liquid by Eve herself. In a few seconds time his unfolded, patched up skeleton has returned to normal form.

She has her biodegradable scanner analyze the physiological damage done to his internal organs. His lungs had to be depressurized. His brain showed traumatic concussion bruising, liver squashed to jelly replaced and extreme tissue damage in most of his tendons.

She has the information relayed to the auto surgeon's flash-cloning device to create the new liver needed and prepare for an operation. Inside a translucent canister is an embryo of a human liver rapidly morphing into shape. Also at work, the prosthetic processing arms began repairing Wally's ancient and scrapped mechanical forearm.

While the new organ formed, she has to get quickly inside his torso to repair his internal injuries.

She uses a surgical laser to cut open his abdomen. With no blood left in his body it made less of a mess as she pries into the clean cut incision, barely keeping herself from getting queasy while sticking her gloved hands into his innards.

Her hands move fast but a bit shaky as she slices through cartilage to his damaged vital organs.

The auto surgeon pings, indicating the flash cloned liver and rebuilt arm completed. Almost half a minute passed, she had to go faster!

Eve cuts her way around the surrounding stomach tissue, freeing the damaged liver from its diaphragm attachment and extracts it. She pulls out the destroyed liver, the dark organ responsible for fluid distribution and blood cleansing looked like a squashed yam from being compressed. Eve's hands drenched in thick gore and leaked liver fluid. Shaking her head she sets the squashed organ aside and the auto surgical arms place the duplicate inside his abdominal cavity. With speed, precision, and no regard to disgust, the auto surgeon implants the new liver inside the diaphragm. It reattached blood vessels, injected proper fluids and instantly stitched it up with biodegradable stitching within seconds.

To his lungs, she takes two tiny nozzles of oxygen out of the kit and jabs them into the punctured air sacs. She felt the flow of oxygen, inflating his respiratory system and sealed the lungs with biodegradable stitches.

With all torso wounds out of the way, she finally prepares the spare pacemaker by sterilizing it while the auto surgeon slices out the destroyed one from Wally's chest. The arms form tweezers and pull the blown pacemaker out of Wally's chest cavity piece by piece. Eve slows her pace down to take a look into Wally's opened chest, seeing his deformed heart for the first time. It appeared it was a chewed and swollen organ with all blood cavities in the wrong place, a birth defective heart.

She tenderly installs the device into her beloved's misshapen heart with care. Recalling what knowledge she had of ancient silicon based circuitry, she examines functions of the spare pacemaker and the scarred delicate circulatory system, noting where every copper wire and every pump goes inside the ventricle cavities and valves.

With the last wire in place, Eve believes she has it implanted correctly to function. Now Wally needs a blood transfusion, having lost all of it from prolonged and profuse bleeding.

Using the auto surgeon's flash-cloning erythrocyte pump, Eve makes numerous IV injections into every major vessel with freshly generated oxygenated blood with plasmatic fluid, pumping Wally's body with ten pints of new A- blood volume.

With his circulatory lines being refilled, she simultaneously pneumatically injects amniotic and embryonic stem cells into his torn muscles, nerves, and blood vessels, the regenerative embryos rapidly seals numerous open gashes and burnt flesh to ensure they don't bleed out again, the incisions included and the splinted spinal membrane in his back.

Within another minute's time, after reattaching his rebuilt prosthetic arm, extracting the broken shards of shattered Wally's glasses from his face and final patches to his lacerations, the pummeled pulp of a garbage collector now fully healed.

One last step in order to bring him back.

Eve prepares a wireless defibrillator, rubbing both electrodes for a charge. Both pads in hand pinged fully charged and she inhaled a deep breath. This is going to be the most important moment in her life.

She places the pads over his heart, mentally praying for this to work…

"Clear!"

…and shocks Wally's heart, sending the electric shock to jumpstart his pacemaker.

Wally's pacemaker activated, its blood distributor pumping new blood. Eve gently presses two fingers to his carotid artery. No pulse came from his heart…

Time slowed to a crawl, every nanosecond felt like an hour.

…Eve holds her breath for every passing second…

...she waited…

...and waited…

...and waited...

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

…_thump thump…_

_..thump thump…_

A very faint heartbeat echoes in Eve's ears loud as music.

Wally stirs, his eyes open slowly and he remained on the floor unmoving, starring at her.

Eve remained wide-eyed seeing her deceased lover suddenly awake. She couldn't believe she actually resurrected him. She let out all the air she held, her whole world fell back into place and back to normal. All her pain disappeared seeing him alive and well again.

Now she could give him the thing to make everything complete, to hold his hand.

"Wally…" she sweetly speaks, removing her blood stained gloves and holding her slender hand out, waiting for him to take it.

Wally stares at her. Eve isn't the least bit confused, he's right in front of her, waiting to give the happy ever after he always dreamed of. Wally doesn't reach out for her hand. He sits there unmoving, staring blankly at Eve. Something about his eyes…

Wally moves, his organic hand brushing pass Eve's arm. Eve expression goes from rejoice to bafflement.

_What is he doing? _Wally lays himself on his belly, like he's trying to crawl like a baby. Eve turns him over to get him to face her.

"Wally. It's me, Eve!" She points to herself, using her sweet voice to emphasize herself to him.

Again, he stares at her with a blank face, if he doesn't know who she is. Eve could only speculate amnesia for his bizarre behavior, the concussion he had must've temporarily knocked out his memory.

Working with that theory, she looks around. Maybe something could refresh his memory.

"Oh," she picks up the Rubik's cube and the light bulb, the bulb shined as she touched it. She puts the trinkets in his hands. Hopefully he remembers how much he liked finding these things.

He barely turns his head to look at the unknown objects in his hand. He had no idea what they are. Eve gets the lighter from one shelf, maybe he will remember the night she was with him in this truck, one of his greatest memories he had of sheltering and sharing his treasures with her.

She flicks the lighter on in front of him, yet Wally doesn't seem to acknowledge the tiny little flame. He doesn't even register the soft glow of heat.

"Wally?"

Eve slowly became worried. Why didn't he recognize things the way he should after she restored him? Something's missing…

"Oh! I know!" Of course, something was missing. Eve rushes over to the VCR, pushing the play button toHello Dolly.

As 'Put On Your Sunday Clothes'played its cheerful tunes, Eve looks back at Wally expecting to see him be himself again. Eve's eyes shot wide open in shock and confusion instead.

Wally flailed his arm at the junk filled shelves, he couldn't even try to control his arm's extremity functions like his fingers or joints even though he can. He couldn't even move his lower body if paralyzed, even drooling uncontrollably.

He tries to crawl with his limp arms like some primal, brainless creature.

"Wally?"

Eve stares at Wally, her confusion quickly turned into panic.

_WHAT IN FORTHRIGHT'S NAME IS WRONG WITH HIM?_

Hal sniffs his revived master, barks at him stipulating he didn't know the person at all, not the master he knew.

Why is this happening? Paralysis? No cognitive senses? No memory…

"Oh no…"

A dark realization came over Eve. She checks her timer to see how long Wally has been clinically dead for. If more than fifteen minutes of passed, then that would mean he's…

…her clock read seventeen minutes passed. At this point, without oxygen flow to Wally's brain for that amount of time…

"No!...NO!...NOO!" Eve cries out in disbelief, unable to quell the dreadfulness brewing up in her as the realization sank in.

"HE CAN'T BE!"

She rushes over to his twitching body at the bottom of the ramp, turning him over and propping him up to face her. The look in his eyes shocked Eve so much she refused to believe her sight.

There was nothing in his eyes, the absence of his innocent being relevant in the now fully dilated pupils. He no longer had the most caring and loving hazel eyes longing for Eve and with the purpose of her yearning to see into.

The pupils of his eyes darker than the blackness of space itself. They were void. Soulless.

She hesitantly pulls out her holographic-data pad to run a neuron scan on Wally's brain, she couldn't believe this was happening, this is a nightmare. Deep down she knows it's too true to deny.

The neuron scan pings completed and Eve reads what's wrong with his mind. All of the hope Eve clang to, her last drop of happiness, the faint light at the end of the tunnel for saving the one she loved... shattered as she read it. Her worst fears now confirmed a reality.

There was blood flow to Wally's brain, his Nero-cortex showed no signs of cognitive bioelectric activity, all membrane cells in his nervous system already died from necrosis, a lack of oxygenated blood for, irreparably, too long.

Wally was clinically brain-dead.

"NOO! WALLY!" Eve breaks down in tears, shaking his body, slapping his face to wake whatever left of the man she loved from a mindless sleep he will never wake up from.

"WALLY! DON'T LEAVE ME!..." She sobbed through her desperate pleas for him to come back to her. She held his face tight and loving as she can, screaming for him.

"...WALLY! **WAAAAALLLLLYYY!"**

No force on Earth or Heaven listened to her begging for his life.

It's too late. Wally's memory, his mind, his consciousness and in essence, his very soul simply gone.

Wallace Burtt is no more.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

She lost him forever in oblivion. Eve stared into the empty eyes of the soulless body once Wally. She looked at him in silence for what felt forever, her heart pounding in dread as what happened sank in, a life simply ended right in front of her.

Finally, she broke down. All the emotions built up inside her heart flowed out in soft sobs. Though mostly silent, Eve cried like she never had in her entire life.

She let out all her tears of immeasurable pain and immeasurable love.

Her tears flowed freely like a waterfall until her eyes reddened and stung, unable to tear anymore from crying too much. Her sobbing faded into painful, choked whimpers like she couldn't breathe.

All quiet again, the only sound breaking the silence of loss is the soft howl of the wind and the steady breathing of Wally's vegetative body.

Even though she got Wally's body functioning again, it is not him anymore, just his former shell, no life force left in him. His brain damage irreversible and his consciousness ceased, not too different from clinical death. Her mind ceased to register everything around her for her whole universe shattered into nothingness.

She couldn't save him, the man she loved more than life itself no longer existed. There's nothing left here anymore, but Eve couldn't just leave. There was nothing to go back to. The life she knew has been altered forever because of him, because he had put so much importance on her.

It's ironic on how much her thoughts of this lonely, humble man had changed so dramatically. When first meeting him, she pointed a plasma rifle to his face, all because he wanted to take in the first human being he had laid eyes on in untold years of isolation. Furthermore she tried to ignore him for being such a nuisance, hoping he would go away. She even tried to blame him for her problems. _Moreover_ she tried to kill him herself for the problems he never caused to her. He still kept following her with those longing eyes like a lost puppy through everything she put him through.

What she wouldn't give to have him come back to her right at that moment. Even through her mistreatment of him, he had done incredible things for her. He brought the plant to her, protected her, showed her unthinkable treasures and taught her things that no one else could comprehend the secrets of life long forgotten by humanity: emotions, understanding, moments, dreams and affection. He had brought humanity back to its home world because of the sequence of events created by everything he had done for her out of the humble goodness of his golden heart.

Moreover, he gave his life for it, for her because he loved her.

Eve's pain endlessly swelled in her broken heart, she wanted to cry so hard, although she had no more tears or strength left to do so. She suffered an unimaginable loss that hurt her more than dying. Nothing left she could to do.

There is one thing she can…want to...need to... must do. The last thing she could do for Wally's memory, to give him something for everything he done for her. The one thing he always wanted, something he traveled through hell, space, life and death for.

Slowly, she pries open his lifeless hand with her own, intertwining her slender, silky fingers with his calloused, scarred fingers.

Eve brought her other arm around his vegetative body, holding him close in utter silence, closing her eyes and touching his forehead with hers. Her angelic white hair enveloped his blank yet peaceful looking expression. She then, out of somewhere from the deepest parts of her, quietly and tenderly hummed the sweet tune of his favorite song'_It Only Takes A Moment_.' One that taught him the thing he always dreamed of cherishing.

She held his hand, the one thing Wally deeply wanted to love her and be loved.

It hurt her he never lived long enough to savor the thing he survived, suffered, and died for; to see his wish come true. Where all his pain would end with this magical moment of intimacy with her, letting him know he is no longer alone in the universe, and it did only take a moment to be loved a whole life long.

As Eve rhythmically hums the last notes of the song she cups his cheek with a delicate hand, planting a soft kiss on his lips, finishing his song.

She kept her eyes closed, her voice choked with sadness. Eve let out three little words that were quieter than the softest whisper humanly possible.

The words she let out were Wally's last words he had said to her before they returned to Earth. She quotes the same words to whatever is left of his spirit remained in his body, and wherever afterlife his consciousness went. The three little words that Wally had waited an ended lifetime to hear.

"I…I l-love you."

It made her tears return, out of the pain of pure love…

…A minute goes by slowly as a few hours, just holding him. Remembering him...

Her grievance subsided, leaving her reluctant to leave his body, let alone move or think clearly of anything else.

Not entirely forgotten, Eve figured eventually the people of _Axiom_ will come looking for her, and him.

She no longer cared about them anymore, nothing important left for Eve. Her directive completed, humanity has returned home… now what?

Eve felt a void growing in her heart out of the feeling of being useless without a direction in this new world, she felt lost without the one she loved and the irrelevance of the people she brought to Earth didn't seem they posed any significance to her. For the first time in her life, she felt totally and utterly alone and without purpose.

She wondered if there were any reasons for her to go on without him now.

Maybe she could follow him into oblivion as he once followed her wherever she went, to join him and be with him forever. She had potassium cyanide capsules...

_NO!_

She can't do it, she can't even_ think_ about it.

She would condemn herself if she ever thought of suicide to be with him. She had to live, something Wally would've wanted.

Eve hesitantly tries to get up from her embrace of him, a first step to a very painful goodbye. She will never forget him long as she lived. Neither will the rest of the _Axiom_, no one could've possibly amount the courage Wally had to give his life for humanity, everyone who now resides on Earth owed him everything.

She sets that to be her thought from now on. She couldn't bring herself to think of another dark thought entering her mind about what to do with his body since he has no consciousness left. She had to go, she will come back for his body, for everyone will want to know everything.

She pulls away to painfully leave...

…except her hand is still clutching Wally's hand.

She slightly jerks back, snapping her out of her depressive thoughts. She tries to shake her hand loose but her fingers still stuck in Wally's no matter how hard she tried.

Eve quickly looked back into Wally's eyes. Maybe he'll be him again. Somehow.

Wally's eyes still empty. Eve's hopeful expression drained out of her eyes, defeated by desperate delusions to see him again. She couldn't let go of him that easily, that's why. Her gaze lowers to his hand still interlocked with his. Somehow, they felt tighter if she were clutching him tighter…

His fingers twitched, slightly inward around her hand.

Eve's thoughts and emotions came to a grinding stop in shock, she wasn't holding him back, _he_ was holding her back!

Wally's fingers twitched again, they slowly yet gently clasped Eve's hand, a perfect fit.

Eve's heart skips entire beats, looking back into his eyes.

Wally blinks, the blackness in his eyes shrink into hazel irises contracted in his eyes. A familiar presence filled the void of his eyes.

It was the eyes full of innocent life, the eyes of Wally. Could it be?…

"W…Wally?"

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Wallace groaned, felling a lightheaded tingle from a sensation of something growing inside his mind. His whole body in the inside felt the same numbness of something unfamiliar, yet they were functioning and it didn't hurt. That confused him, for he knew he had been in terrible pain before he ended up here.

His vision painfully tries to come into focus, sensitive from emerging from total nothingness into the bright light of day. He didn't have his glasses on, his near sightedness made out a glowing white silhouette of a human being. He felt warmth radiating off this blurry beautiful figure wrapping him around like a blanket. A very familiar, loving presence was holding him. There something about that presence, like he knew it as an angelic being, a woman.

He sees crystalline blue orbs twinkled brighter than the stars of the night sky. He looked straight into her wide-eyed, stricken expression of disbelief, and some very evident sadness. Suddenly, he knew those eyes.

It was the eyes of the angel holding him close.

_His_ angel.

"E…vah?"

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Eve's heart almost stops when she heard him say her name.

She is too shocked and astonished to move. The impossible just happened. This a hallucination? A dream? Was her mind clouded by dread it desperately tries to make her feel better?

She looks deep into his large eyes, the innocent consciousness she knew as Wally flooded back into his body as he moved his limp extremities and slowly sat up.

She couldn't believe it for even a second, yet…here he was.

He was alive, well, and…remembers.

_He remembers!_

At last, believing Wally, his consciousness, has come back to her.

She didn't know or care how, her silent prayers have been answered. He was hers again.

**"WALLY!"**

Unable to contain all her erupting emotions, she embraces Wally with all her strength, new tears fell from her moistened eyes and she never smiled so much in her life.

She no longer cried in pain, but cried so much of pure joy.

Wally felt all his bizarre sensations and confusion disappear instantly, for the love of his life held him for dear life. It felt so good, it felt loving, and he returns her embrace. If this was Heaven or if he really wasn't dead, he will drown in the warmth of the moment forever.

"I thought I lost you," she said between her joyous whimpers.

Wally had no idea of his immediate surroundings, and what happened to him after falling into the holo-detector, after the struggle for returning to Earth…dying on the Lido Deck…His last words to Eve…It felt if it happened a lifetime ago, yet after seeing his immediate surroundings, it was barely a few minutes… Surely, he passed on into a realm impossible to articulate.

He felt something draw him away from it, made it all feel instantaneous.

He felt glimmering warmth in his hand, something reminded him of her. He felt a soft peck on his lips, it reminded him of all the things he never experienced in his life: joy, nurture, belonging, love...it reminded him of Heaven. He heard an echo throughout his being trapped in the darkness, hearing the three words he awaited for.

" _I...I l-love you."_

It felt like something stirred inside his head like his brain being fixed or regenerated on its own.

Unbeknownst to either Wally or Eve, the stem cells injected into his blood by Eve flowed in his blood lines to his brain and restored all of his neuron membranes to the way they were.

He didn't care how it happened. All he knew that she was here with him, covered in stains of his own blood and choking in so many tears of love, pain, and happiness. She must've been through so much just to get him back. He will be eternally grateful of her, not to mention eternally loving.

Wally looked at Eve who stood so close to him he could see her fairly clear through his short-sighted vision, their faces almost touching one another as they held each other like there was no tomorrow. Eve looked more beautiful than he could ever imagine without his glasses, the blurriness of his vision made the tears of her face glow with the radiance of her joy. She looked so happy and tearful at the same time, happy to see him alive, so in love.

"Wally…" Eve's honeyed tone grew with her wide smile and held up his hand, still intertwined with his.

Wally gasps, his pacemaker nearly fluctuates at the same time he nearly jumps in pure joy.

"Evah!"

He held her hand!

"Uh-u-Oh-I-uh-you-" he stuttered to find the words for this moment he been waiting for so long for. Eve giggled at his speech impediment more than at his gob smacked reaction, he willingly faced death to save a starship and he is still shy for comprehending holding a woman's hand. He definitely came back as the timid, humble garbage collecting weirdo she loved so much for. Only now he is a heroic, timid garbage collector. _Her_ heroic, timid garbage collector.

Wally's stuttering stops, his eyes taking in the image of his hand interlocked with hers. This the one and only thing in his lifetime he ever wanted so badly, so much this simple act of the moment devoted to a lifetime's worth of hell he suffered. This tender touching of the woman of his life was worth it all.

His eyes look up to Eve's, his vision sank into the moist, tranquil blue eyes shining all the love in the known universe of Eve. It looked like he stared into Heaven itself.

Finally, he speaks without a single impediment, his words directly from his heart.

"I-Is this what Heaven is like?"

Wally's voice barely above a whisper, but it made Eve's eyes overflow. The magic of this moment almost too much for her, yet, it is among the most beautiful words Wally ever spoken to her deep from his core. He had spoken so many wonderful things to her before, conscious or not, if she could melt when he said that, she'd be a warm puddle on the ground at the moment.

She brings her other hand up to his cheek, staring back into the hazel eyes full of love and awe. Without his glasses, his eyes looked far more intense, not to mention far more attractive and beautiful to her now. No more pain present in him anymore. His question so touching she had to answer.

"No…" she held their intertwined hands to her heart.

"…_this_, is real."

Wally's heart melted and tightens his gentle grip on her hand. This is too wonderful to be true. He couldn't differ if he really was dead or not, for it felt if he was in Heaven. Instead, this was real.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

"WAWWY!" Hoover cheers at the top of his lungs, seeing his friend has survived. The rejects jumped up and celebrated as they see Wally awakening.

Moe celebrated as well, even Hal wagged his tail in rejoice, his master has woken up! Moe knew t the way Wally and Eve looked they needed to be alone. After everything they've been through, theirs no need to think about what's to happen next.

Not wanting to shatter the couple's moment, or risk Eve's wrath, Moe tries to shoe off the rejects. He also didn't want to miss the historic event about to take place just outside the _Axiom_, the captain going to plant the seedling!

"Come on, let's go! Go! GOGOGOGOGOGOGO!" Some are too eager and tried to watch them, Moe manages to get them away.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

They are aware Moe and the rejects are there, they didn't really give for privacy. They'd let anyone in the world witness this beautiful moment.

Wally sat up and both slowly leaned ever closer to each other, both their eyes closed in pure bliss as their lips touched.

Their first mutual kiss.

Wally felt the mental overloading of Eve's love rushing through his body. He didn't pass out this time. This time he stayed conscious to savor every picoseconds of the sweet taste of her lips in contact with his own. Both lovers went slow and passionately, drinking in more and more of each other as they deepened the kiss. Wally let his free hand that supported Eve runs slowly up her spine, the sensation enough to get through Eve's nano-suit, causing her to moan along with him as he felt her free hand massage through his unruly hair down to the back of his neck. They both fell beyond euphoria and into ecstasy with such intimate touch they've waited so long for.

_"And that is all..." _

Somewhere, probably from the VCR that Eve left on in the truck, they could hear no better song than one intimate enough for this exact time, '_It Only Takes A Moment_,' their song.

They didn't touch Heaven. Eve was right, this _is_ Heaven.

_"...that love's about..."_

Wally and Eve slowly broke from the kiss, touching each other's foreheads and slowly breathing deep from the passionate exchange.

They looked into each other's eyes, staring into the other one's soul. in time suspended by the intimacy.

Wally held Eve gingerly by the back of her slender neck and around her seductive waist. She was stained in his blood and filth plus minor injuries of her own but it didn't bother him or her anymore, so he just kept her as close to him as possible to keep the feeling. He was completely amazed that after his journey through so much odds, from surviving nature's fury to flying across the galaxy, this beautiful female of a white haired angel in his arms is now all his to love and care for.

_"...And we'll recall..." _

"I love you, Evah," he whispers as soft as his rough voice could.

He looked deep into the abyss of her blue orbs as he pours his heart to her. He felt his own eyes moisten.

"…I love you so much. I always have," he didn't stutter, for he now knew he could say to her the things he wanted to say.

_"...when time runs out..."_

Eve's eyes once again flowed freely of tears, the happiness in her face shined brighter than all the stars of the cosmos, truly moved by the words from his heart.

She held him by the back of his neck and the cup of his jaw. Truly amazed for the loyal and beautiful soul she held. This man from the dark and long forgotten Earth who devotedly protected her against unimaginable odds, shared her the forgotten secrets of life and ventured across deep space to hold her hand, now all hers to love and care for.

_"...That it only..." _

Affectionately and playfully, she tickled the peak of his nose with the tip of her own, drawing a light giggle from both of them.

"I love you too, Wally," she breathlessly whispers to him as she plants a long kiss on his lips, embracing him around his neck.

Wally rested his head on her shoulder, burying his face into her cascading white hair. Caressing her tightly, letting the heat radiating off her skin to his to keep him warm. Eve's whole body pressed up against him, wrapping around him like a blanket to protect him.

Eve murmured his name in a tender way possible as she cuddled up with him, Wally and Eve felt safe in each other's arms, never felt more safe, more cozy, comfortable or belonging in the duration of their existences.

She whispers into his ear.

"…I love you so much and I always will."

_"...took a moment..."_

Hearing her, tears freely rolled down Wally's cheek as he rests his weary face against her white hair and silky skin. He shredded sweet tears for this was the happiest moment in his entire life. Because it was the very first time he not only has ever heard those three words spoken to him, and truly mean it to the core and those words came from the heart of Eve herself.

At last after three decades of suffering and surviving a past of hell and journeyed through the impossible to hear those three little words from someone who now sees him a significant other, a human being that needs him more than air to live a happy life together. Living proof of true love in his arms, a moment that will last forever in his memory; even if the world ended right then and there, he would die a _very_ happy man.

Eve, his angel embracing him, his angel that came down from the stars like he prayed for on one lonely starlit night not so long ago; looking up into the heavens for the answer to his lonely life and the wonders of what beauty was.

_"...to be loved..."_

His dream finally came true.

Wallace Burtt will never feel alone ever again.

_"...a whole life long."_

* * *

Well, this is technically where the movie ends with end credit showing a montage of artwork from the past in historical order starting with the cave paintings which than progresses through Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Renaissance, then mimicking certain Impressionists such as **_Vincent van Gogh_**, **_Georges Seurat_** and _**Auguste Renoir**_. The credits than finishes with depictions of the main robots in the style of early computer games all the while the song Down to Earth by **_Peter Gabriel_** is being played at the beginning of credits.

For those who are familiar with the movie, you'll notice that this chapter doesn't end with the captain plant the seedling, witness the happy couple and the rejects play around outside the truck, the view of vegetation growing back out of the dead ground, and the view of the planet Earth. The reason for that is **whoadrep** believed the film ended too quickly so he purposely rewrote the ending to emphasize the importance of how Wally (WALL∙E) finally earned his place in Eve's (EVE) heart, to see how he feels after everything he experienced throughout the film to get to where is is now which is in Eve's arms. Plus, the alternate ending made it easier for the author to get the story to flow into the epilogue.


End file.
